New plan can help save jobs in transit

Local agencies allowed to shift project money

Bay Area public transit providers got the green light to divert money usually reserved for projects to help stave off layoffs and service cuts until a new federal stimulus package arrives.

The new policy approved by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission on Wednesday allows, but does not require, transit operators such as BART, San Francisco Muni and Golden Gate Transit to use Federal Transit Administration grants to keep transit workers on their payrolls and buses, trains and ferries moving. The grants are typically reserved for projects such as regular maintenance, building new stations or replacing old buses, trains and ferries.

The new policy comes after a coalition of transit workers, unions and supporters urged the commission last month to divert at least $100 million in Federal Transit Administration funds to prevent layoffs.

“What’s currently pressing is the need to keep highly trained professionals in a paycheck so we will actually have bus drivers and crews and captains and mechanics available once demand returns,” Robert Estrada, regional director of Inlandboatmen’s Union of the Pacific, told the commission.

The questions now are whether transit agencies will use the new tool and whether a new federal stimulus package will come through.

Following nine months of drastic ridership and revenue losses, transit agencies throughout the nation are facing a financial cliff. Bay Area tran

sit providers received $1.3 billion in federal stimulus funding from the CARES Act in March to prevent layoffs and maintain service, but agencies are reporting that the funding has already been used up or will be by the end of this month.

The 25 Bay Area transit agencies that are eligible to receive federal transportation dollars are expected to end the fiscal year in June 2021 with an estimated $400 million to $600 million shortfall, which could grow to $1.7 billion the following year if current losses continue, according to MTC.

In a joint letter, the heads of 21 transit agencies in the region stated that while they support the new flexibility on how they use the

federal funds, the money available will be “insufficient to address the larger crisis.”

“Ultimately what is needed is additional relief from the state and federal government at a scale to address the serious financial situation that the region is facing,” the letter states.

After running out of its $52 million in CARES Act funds in November, the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District became the first major transit provider in the region to approve mass layoffs. It plans to lay off nearly 150 bus and ferry workers on Jan. 4.

San Francisco Muni is considering cutting about 22% of its workforce, or about 1,230 positions, in the 2021-2022 fiscal year, when it is expected to face an estimated $168 million deficit.

Denis Mulligan, general manager of the Golden Gate

Bridge district, said Thursday that the district does not intend to shift any of its federal funds. MTC’s new policy does not provide any new dollars, Mulligan said, and doesn’t allow agencies to come back the next year asking for an increase in federal funds to make up for what they spent.

While unions have urged the district to dip into its $220 million fund reserved for projects such as replacing old buses and ferries or its earthquake retrofit project, Mulligan said it would be difficult if not impossible to recover those federal dollars without dipping into toll revenues, which are primarily needed to maintain the bridge.

Delaying construction projects would just be “trading transit jobs for construction and shipyard jobs,” Mulligan said.

“It’s great f lexibility and for some agencies it

works but for our situation it doesn’t,” Mulligan said about the new MTC policy. “We’re obviously keenly focused on what’s happening in Washington, D.C., and keenly paying attention to the possibilities that are there.”

Shane Weinstein, president of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1575, which represents about 250 Golden Gate bus drivers, said these federal grant dollars should be used to prevent the layoffs.

“These grant funds are for things like boats and parking lots,” Weinstein told the commission. “These things can be put off during a COVID emergency, so we would ask that you would encourage the agencies to use these capital grant funds during the emergency situations for operating expenses.”

All eyes are now on a proposed new stimulus

bill being discussed by Congress. The new $908 package proposed by the bipartisan “Problem Solvers Caucus” in the House would include $ 45 billion for transportation, of which $15 billion would go to mass transit. By comparison, the CARES Act reserved $25 billion for transit agencies.

If that funding is approved, Mulligan said, the district would likely call a special board meeting a few days after to reconsider the layoffs.

Earlier this year, the House of Representatives passed a $2.2 trillion package known as the Heroes Act, which included $ 32 billion for transit agencies nationwide. Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell did not take up the bill for a vote and instead proposed a smaller stimulus bill of about $500 billion.