For a year now, despite service that matches 2019 levels, ridership has leveled off at about 40% of what it was before COVID. There is no sign that BART usage will return to pre-pandemic levels. The district’s leaders insist that if they get it, BART will build back ridership. District officials want regional and state public dollars to make up the difference.

But BART officials have refused to plan needed cuts as they wean off the federal money.Īs a result, the district faces a $1 billion budget gap over the next five years, the so-called fiscal cliff. Rather than capitulate to the transit agency’s demands for an endless supply of new money, state lawmakers and voters should insist that transit district leaders responsibly manage what they have.ĭuring the pandemic, as BART ridership plummeted, the federal government covered the district’s revenue shortfall. Newsom, state legislators and Bay Area voters should be similarly skeptical as BART officials press ahead with their lobbying for the bridge toll hike and an expected 2026 ballot measure seeking new taxes. Until BART develops a long-term plan that responsibly accounts for its new ridership reality, it doesn’t deserve any new money. It’s that last point that is the most important. “As proposed, these increases would have a disproportionate impact on low- and moderate-income residents in the Bay and would be borne most significantly by workers who have to commute for their work,” the congressional members wrote. So, they went as far as they could in challenging what would be the fourth bridge toll hike in six years.

The letter from the six, all labor-friendly Democrats, indicates that the union-driven BART board majority is pushing the envelope beyond even what some of its allies can stomach.Ĭongressional ethics rules prevent House members from explicitly opposing state legislation. Mark DeSaulnier, Anna Eshoo, Barbara Lee, Eric Swalwell, Mike Thompson and John Garamendi voiced “strong concerns” about a proposed $1.50 Bay Area bridge toll hike to bail out BART and other transit agencies. Gavin Newsom and the leaders of the state Senate and Assembly, Reps. The good news is that six Bay Area members of Congress last week started questioning this insanity. It’s fiscal recklessness that, if not stopped, could cost residents billions in higher taxes and bridge tolls. Instead, its leaders are pressing the accelerator while insisting that Bay Area residents pay for a bridge over the rapidly approaching abyss. As BART hurls toward what it calls a fiscal cliff, one would expect the transit system to tap the brakes.

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