By now, East Bay residents are aware of the massive restructuring that has taken place at AC Transit. At the end of March, lines were re-routed in order to blunt the blow of an over 8 percent cut in service, brought about by reductions in revenue, or tax, collection. But AC Transit riders are in for a big surprise … and not the good kind.
This Friday, AC Transit staff will releasing a preliminary draft of a report for a second round of massive cuts to service. While the March cuts represented a reduction of $9.6 million in the agencies operating budget, this next round will be slightly bigger at $10.4 million. So, how did we get here? A quick recap is necessary.
Last year, AC Transit embarked on a nearly 12-month process of identifying 15 percent cuts to the agencies services in order to fill an impending $56 million deficit. Through the process, staff worked diligently and commendably to re-jigger lines to maintain service hours and coverage in much of the district, but a 15 percent reduction in service is enormous and the resulting plan had big effects on some neighborhoods with low ridership.
At the time, the board asked the Bay Area Metropolitan Transportation Commission (the regional transportation funding agency) and the federal government to use money that had been allocated for capital projects (specifically the planned International/Telegraph BRT route) for operations. In the world of transportation, these funds are separate and you often cannot use capital money for operations. (And yes, that means it’s often easy to build systems, but not fund them to run.)
At the same time, the board was considering placing a parcel tax on the ballot in 2010 in order to cover looming, on-going budget deficits. Based on these two assumptions — a new parcel tax and the capital-operations swap — the AC Transit board reduced the planned service cuts from 15 percent to 8 percent, a little bit on a wing-and-a-prayer that both the swap and the tax would help them maintain the new levels.
Fast-forward six months: The new reductions have occurred (just three weeks ago) and AC Transit has a new interim general manager and relatively new CFO. The agency has received good financial news in the last month. MTC has found a way to trade AC Transit’s capital money for operations money and the state of California (really, the governor) decided to back off its campaign to decimate transit throughout California and promised to send the agency $13 million in unexpected operations funds – $6.5 million this year and another $6.5 million in 2011.
At the same time, AC Transit’s executive leadership decided that budgeting for possible future parcel taxes, in a down economy and probably based on a poll that was run on the issue, was not fiscally prudent. Every month that the agency took no action, it lost $2.5 million and waiting until next year, after the November election, could cost AC Transit well over $10 million, with no promise that they would have extra money from new tax collection.
All of which means that although AC Transit has received millions in the last month to cover operations, they are still looking at a projected $56 million budget deficit at the end of 2011 and action has to be taken to reduce costs. Which in the transit world means higher fares or less service. And after increasing fares last year, the agency is looking to make the rest of their original cuts … plus some more.
In less than two weeks, the AC Transit board will receive staff’s recommendation and vote to begin a 30-day public hearing period, ending with a public meeting. The goal is for the board to approve a service reduction plan in June and the plan to be implemented in September.
For East Bay transit riders, it’s going to be a tough year. Stay informed by visiting AC Transit. The staff report will be available next week.
John Knox White
John spends far too much of his time attending meetings about transportation, talking about transportation and reading about transportation. In his work for TransForm, he joins over 30 advocates working to create world-class public transportation and walkable communities in the Bay Area and beyond. He has worked on East Bay transportation issues for nearly a decade as a former member of the Alameda Transportation Commission, and active transit and bicycling advocate. He lives in Alameda with his wife and two sons, but spends much of his day in the great City of Oakland. 
[...] discussing further service cuts. You can read about the background of the need for further cuts at John Knox White’s excellent article on Oakland Seen. This meeting will take place at 6pm in the 2nd floor board room, 1600 Franklin Street. You can [...]
So much for Transform’s so-called “HUGE VICTORY FOR TRANSIT, JOBS, AND JUSTICE!” (sic caps @ http://transformca.org/campaign/oac)
Transform sold us all on the false promise that “…the brutal service cuts and fare hikes happening region-wide can be slowed and hopefully stopped …” by the $70 Million diverted from the Oakland Airport Connector.
Clearly this was a lie as the “second round of massive cuts to service” continue, just as deep cuts continue at CalTrain and other transit agencies across the Bay Area.
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