Perspective: Who's reviewing BART's (highly questionable) fiscal choices?
Roger Riffenburgh calls for greater financial oversight of BART, given recent mind-boggling decisions to amp up spending, hiring, train routes, and pretty-pleases to local—and federal (whoops)—gov't. Otherwise, taxpayer money will continue to vanish along with pre-Covid ridership.
Much has been reported in recent months about the “fiscal cliff” facing transit agencies in general and the Bay Area Rapid Transit district in particular. According to BART figures, its ridership is well under half of what it was in pre-pandemic times. Remote work and empty San Francisco buildings have significantly cut demand for BART’s service and, with it, operating revenue. Before the pandemic, revenue from fares provided a solid majority of BART’s income; now fares provide less than a third, with temporary federal emergency assistance filling the gap.
In a typical company, when demand for its service drops, the company cuts back production by reducing staff and other costs. But not at BART. The East Bay Times’ Dan Borenstein explains that BART’s “response to plummeting ridership and a $1 billion budget shortfall over the next five years is to increase spending, hire more workers, run more trains and insist that taxpayers bail out the Bay Area’s largest commuter rail system.”
State Senator Steve Glazer, a Democrat and a public transit supporter, has been critical of BART financial oversight and successfully led the effort to create a BART Inspector General in 2017. After the Alameda County Grand Jury found that BART leadership often blocked the IG, Glazer pushed ahead legislation to increase the IG’s independence. The governor vetoed this legislation, reportedly at the request of the BART board.
The Legislature came through with a public transit bailout plan which handles BART’s immediate fiscal problems, but not the long term. Dan Borenstein says, “The one voice of reason on the BART board is Director Debora Allen.” In a recent Mercury News article, Allen laid out her suggestions for reform. She says that since BART is putting increasing costs on the taxpayers, BART should be subject to review by a state commission, much as the state does for school districts facing bankruptcy. Since labor costs are over 77% of operating costs, current contracts should be reconsidered for work rules and benefit levels. To prevent inappropriate influence by vendors and labor unions, she suggests a $500 campaign contribution limit per election cycle. And finally, “the Office of the BART Inspector General should be moved out of BART control and put under the direction of the Caltrans inspector general or the State Auditor’s Office.”
This article originally appeared in BayAreaGOP. Read the whole thing here.
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