| Dear Friends: Thank you for your comments on the proposed fare increase/restructuring for AC Transit. As most of you understood, in March the AC Board was setting the date of, and the parameters for, the fare hearing. The fare hearing will be on 18 May at 3:00 and 6:00 p.m. (probably at the Scottish Rite Center on Lakeshore in Oakland, but AC staff is still confirming the location). (More on the hearing below.) The Range Of Proposals The Board established a broad set of parameters in the form of five fare proposals. To give you an idea of the ranges:
AC staff is in the process of producing information and brochures that set out the alternatives in detail. I encourage you to check the AC Transit web site (www.actransit.org) to download and review the proposals. In the end, the Board can "mix and match" elements from the various proposals so long as all elements of the new fares are within the parameters available for public comment at the hearing. AC's Financial Status Whatever combination is chosen, it will need to raise between $4 and $8 million per year. The economy and our sales tax income have gone up slightly, and the voters have been very generous with some small property tax increases, but our income picture is still not healthy and our expenses continue to go up. Just three examples. During the past three years the Metropolitan Transportation Commission ("MTC") has allowed us to take advantage of a federal program that provides flexibility to use some of our capital funding for current expenses to the tune of almost $20 million in some years. That flexibility (and the capital funding that supported it) will no longer be available to the extent it has been. The price of diesel fuel has doubled in the past two years (we use almost 20,000 gallons of diesel a day). In the past three years our health care costs have gone up over 40% and we have been told to expect double digit increases for the foreseeable future. All of these costs are the result of factors far beyond the control of the AC Board. The Fare Hearing And Other Public Involvement As I noted above, the public hearing on the fare proposals will be on 18 May. I encourage you to submit written comments and/or come and testify at the hearing. To be most helpful, your testimony should address the specific elements of the proposals. For example: Do you pay a cash fare because you can't afford a 31-day pass, but you could afford a 7-day pass? How many buses to you ride to make your daily trip? How many trips to you make in an average day? To and from work? Shopping? Social activities? Have you ever stayed home because you could not afford bus fare? Do you buy a 31-day pass for convenience even though in some months it would be cheaper to pay cash fare every day? Why don't you buy a 31-day pass even though it is much cheaper than paying cash fare (particularly applicable to students)? Would having a plastic card on which you store money so that you did not have to deal with cash change your views on any of the above? You might also comment on some broader questions: What should the AC Board consider success -- If we make more money, but generate fewer trips, is that a success? If we make more money and generate more trips, but some people have to stay home a lot more, is that a success? How do we measure any of that? For the activist groups among you, I encourage you to analyze the data provided by our finance department in the GM Memos to the board, the data provided in our last rider survey, the reports from our free student pass experiment along with information available from national sources and whatever other resources you have and provide data as to how the various elements of the fare proposals might affect different groups of people. Although the testimony at the public hearing is important to get your views on record, in the end it is a frustrating and unsatisfying process. For legal and practical reasons, the Board sits up on the stage and listens to your 2 minutes of testimony without any immediate comment. At the end of both parts of the hearing, when most rational people have gone home to their families, the staff makes preliminary responses to the more frequently expressed comments and the Board members make some initial comments - often surprisingly cogent given how exhausted we are. Both staff and the Board comment further and the Board votes at a following meeting. For a more interactive (and hopefully more satisfying) discussion, staff members are available to come to any group's meeting to give their explanation of the various proposals and listen to comments. I, and most of my fellow board members, are also willing to come to group meetings and talk with you. To talk with staff or arrange for a staff member to come to your meeting please contact Deputy General Manager Jim Glitch at jgleich@actransit.org or 510-891-7185. To arrange for a Board member to come to your meeting please contact District Secretary Rose Martinez at rmartine@actransit.org or 510-891-7284. Thank you for your continued interest in AC Transit and I hope to see you at one of the community group meetings. -- Chris Peeples -- |