With state bailout uncertain, BART board OKs budget with $93 million deficit and fare hikes

With the fate of a requested state transit bailout uncertain, the BART board of directors this week approved a $5. 1 billion, two-year budget calling for fare and parking fee hikes — as a projected $93 million deficit looms in 2025. Though the 2024 budget that starts in July is balanced, BART spokesman James Allison said Friday it was the first time the transit agency has approved a budget with a deficit.

BART and other transit agencies have suffered a sluggish recovery from state lockdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic, and say without a bailout to offset depressed ridership, they are heading off a “fiscal cliff. ” The agencies have appealed to Gov. Gavin Newsom for a that must be approved by Thursday.

“Despite our best efforts to hold the line on expenses and grow revenues with modest fare increases, we are still facing a structural, ongoing budget gap,” said BART Board General Manager Bob Powers. “It’s a stark reminder that BART alone cannot solve the financial crisis created by the pandemic. Right now, BART needs temporary state funding to bridge the gap while we pursue a sustainable source of operating funds to help advance the Bay Area and California’s economic, climate, and equity goals.

” The planned fare hikes may only worsen BART’s ridership woes. Monica Kim, 33, of Milpitas, already spends about $20 a day to commute to work in downtown San Francisco four days a week, and she isn’t happy about spending more. “Compared to the rest of the world, BART is a little bit expensive,” Kim said.

“If I have to pay more I would probably drive. ” BART’s Thursday ridership of 166,897 is a fraction of the more than 400,000 who rode the system on a June weekday in 2019. BART last month said that without state money, it will soon have to resort to running trains only once an hour, reducing service on weekends and after 9 p.

m. on weeknights, reducing service to San Francisco International and Oakland International airports, closing some stations and even shutting down some lines altogether. Other transit agencies, including Caltrain and AC Transit, also outlined a series of last fall due to falling ridership and revenues.

BART has maintained operations since the outset of the pandemic with the help of federal emergency funds. The transit agency expects that funding to run out by March 2025, after which it could face deficits of $300 million a year unless the state steps in with funding. But .

His revised budget proposal last month closes that budget gap with trims to climate programs and no bailouts for beleaguered mass transit systems. The legislature must pass a budget bill by June 15. Late last month, several Democratic state lawmakers, led by Sen.

Scott Wiener of San Francisco, appealed to Newsom to bail out transit. They argued the transit agencies’ low ridership isn’t their fault and that dramatic service cutbacks would only undercut California’s efforts to combat pollution blamed for warming the climate. In a June 1 letter to Newsom and legislative leaders, 35 members of the state Senate and Assembly urged them to not only reverse the governor’s proposed $2 billion cut to the Transit and Intercity Rail Capital Program, but also to provide unspecified transit operations bridge funding to help the agencies avoid service cutbacks.

“Transit is not optional — it is an essential service for millions of Californians as they go about their daily lives, whether going to work, school, home, doctor’s appointments, grocery shopping, or any other number of trips,” the lawmakers wrote. “Transit is also an essential tool in meeting the ambitious goals that science and our constituents demand to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions and avoid increased traffic congestion. ” Newsom’s office had no updates Friday.

He has said that while he’s open to discussions, there will have to be some tough decisions. “I’m open to solving every problem that exists, to the extent I can,” Newsom said last month. “But you can’t do everything.

” It is the second year the BART board adopted a two-year budget that combines operating and capital financial plans, intended as a more strategic approach to long-term financial planning. The board approved operating budgets of $1. 1 billion in each of the next two fiscal years, and capital improvement budgets of $1.

5 billion in 2024 and $1. 4 billion in 2025. The BART board voted to increase fares twice over two years, by 5.

5% each, with the first starting in January 2024, raising the average fare 23 cents to $4. 43. Full fare for a 12-mile trip from downtown Berkeley to the Embarcadero station in San Francisco will increase 25 cents to $4.

25, and the cost of a 45-mile trip from Antioch to the Montgomery Street station in San Francisco will rise 40 cents to $8. 60. The second hike would start in January 2025.

The increases are tied to the rate of inflation minus a half-percentage point, and are expected to bring in an additional $26 million in operating funds through the 2025 fiscal year. Stepping down into the Montgomery Street station to head back home to Fremont, Noah Isibor, 32, said he isn’t too upset about paying more for BART, but that he wants to see something out of it. He said BART has to “be more like what it used to be.

” “I’m willing to pay more if they give more,” Isibor said. “They used to be clean, trains would come on time and they had BART workers who cared. Do your job and people won’t complain.

” The board also revised parking fees for the first time since 2013, as the agency spends $30 million on parking services but collects only $14 million in revenues. The new policy will allow the agency to raise prices when lots are full, which has not been the case at most stations. When lots aren’t full, daily fees will remain $3 through 2024 and then be adjusted for inflation.

If demand for parking goes up and lots are full, daily fees could rise up to $8 over the next several years. Currently the only BART parking lots that are more than 90% full are West Oakland, Lake Merritt and Glen Park stations. The daily parking fee is $10.

50 at West Oakland because it includes a city parking tax. The board also raised the Clipper START discount for Bay Area residents aged 19-64 earning under 200% of the federal poverty level. That discount will increase from 20% to 50% starting in January.

The long-planned BART extension to San Jose is unaffected by the board’s budget as it is a Santa Clara County Valley Transportation Authority project. Once completed, BART will own and operate the extension. San Francisco resident Mark Gould, who uses BART on a monthly basis, believes the state should do more to ensure that public transit is well-funded.

“I think it’s the worst thing to do to mass transit,” Gould said, “to make it unaffordable for average people. ”.