Stop All MUNI Cutbacks and Fare Hikes! Come Speak Out at the MTA Hearing!

Since the Metropolitan Transit Agency (MTA) announced its plans to explore potential areas of revenue in September of 2009, the agency has played a political game, which pits different community groups against each other for their own benefit. They have attacked car drivers who can no longer afford MUNI; they have attacked MUNI janitorial workers who maintain MUNI. The MTA has attacked seniors, the youth, and the disabled who are the most vulnerable during these hard economic times by threatening to double their Fast Passes. They have vastly increased police harassment on MUNI – at great cost. Last year, the SFPD billed MUNI $18 million for “services.” All in all, the MTA continues to attack poor and working families who are experiencing cuts, not only at the city level, but at the state and federal level as well.

The MTA has claimed to be sympathetic to the San Francisco community. They claim to understand these measures are “tough decisions,” for the poor and working families. But not once has the board proposed a cut to their own bloated salaries and those of other MUNI and MTA management in order to show that their “understanding” has true meaning. The top heavy cost to maintain public services in San Francisco is just one of the symptoms of the larger problem with the City as a whole that avoids taxing those who have benefited from this economic crisis, the rich! We say it is time to stop making cuts and ratcheting up fares, meter hours and parking tickets and instead TAX THE RICH!

The current patchwork on the deficits in the MTA will not be solved by more cutbacks and more fare hikes. It is important to know that even if the MTA approves these devastating cuts to “solve” this year’s $16.9 million deficit, next year’s deficit amounts to $52.7 million! This means that we can expect the approved cuts to be added to a long list of new service and job cuts and new fare hikes.

This crisis cannot be solved on the backs of poor and working people. It is time to start cutting from the top! We call on community organizations, activists, MUNI riders, and the people of San Francisco who have had enough with the City’s non-stop cuts to our salaries and services to demand that the rich pay instead!

Join us on Feb. 16, 9am to make our voices heard in the MTA hearing. Call 415-821-6545 for more information or to get involved in the campaign.
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