Some legislators have decided that the best way to save transit is to force those who don't use it to pay for it... What does that mean? Raising the Bay Bridge toll price.
Transit agencies have not wanted to cut their operations but ridership revenues are way down, so they're looking at a huge financial cliff, a combined $2.7 billion through fiscal year 2027-28. Advocates have been beating the drum for a bailout to keep the systems fully operating, but the amount the state is considering would only cover a portion of that.
The problem is, after the pandemic, there are simply fewer people commuting to places like San Francisco. That spells big trouble for an agency like BART, which relied heavily on rider fares to cover its cost of operation. So, with ridership on all forms of transit unlikely to fully recover, the idea of a greater public subsidy is being looked at as a given. The bridge toll hike would be the first tax designed to pay for the everyday operation of transit.
If the bill passes, the $1.50 increase would raise the current bridge toll to $8.50. But another one-dollar toll increase is scheduled for 2025. The toll hike has been proposed for five years as a way to make it past 2026. That's when Sen Wiener says they will probably attempt a large regional tax initiative to permanently fund public transit, taking it out of the hands of legislators.
He said voters will be waiting to see if the transit experience can improve in the next three years. So, what are the chances that people who are not currently using public transit in large numbers would be willing to tax themselves to preserve it? Zell said they're actually pretty good.
Malaysia Latest News, Malaysia Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Bay Area lawmakers propose $1.50 bridge toll increase to save public transitLawmakers are looking to make up a $2.5 billion deficit with the proposed hike. But keep in mind, tolls at these bridges were already scheduled to increase by $1 in January 2025.
Read more »
San Francisco Bay Area grocery store takes drastic measures to deter rampant shopliftingA grocery store in the San Francisco Bay Area has taken to installing metal gates at its entrance in an effort to deter rampant shoplifting that has spread throughout the city.
Read more »
San Jose asks MLB to remove Giants' 'territorial rights' over Bay Area expansionSan Jose hasn't given up the long-held dream of getting a Major League team in the South Bay.
Read more »
Bay Area Titanic photographer ‘appalled’ by sub implosionAl Giddings, who has made 17 trips to the shipwreck site, said the submersible must have bent like a tin can under the oceanic pressure.
Read more »
Bay Area woman, 90, finally gets closure on Vietnam vet husband who was MIAFor more than 54 years, a Bay Area woman has wondered what happened to her husband, a U.S. Air Force fighter pilot missing in action during the Vietnam War. Now at age 90, Joyce De Soto of Burlingame and her family finally have answers.
Read more »
Bay Area engineer says OceanGate CEO ignored warnings against use of carbon fiber for sub'We all told him, someone is going to be killed in this thing and you've got to not do it,' the president of DOER Marine Operations in Alameda said of OceanGate's CEO, who visited her back in 2015.
Read more »