Published Friday, June 28, 2002, in the San Francisco Chronicle

Commuters squeezed
Price of driving, riding in Bay Area soon to become yet more expensive

Steve Rubenstein and Michael Cabanatuan

Fork over that $5. Beginning this fall, motorists crossing the Golden
Gate Bridge into San Francisco will pay $2 more, bridge district
directors decided today.

Drivers using FasTrak will get a $1 break, however, with the directors
voting for a $4 option for electronic toll collection.

The vote to bump up the current $3 toll was one in a series of
increases for Bay Area motorists and transit riders.

On Thursday, BART directors, splitting largely along urban-suburban
lines, bickered for hours before eventually agreeing to raise fares 5
percent and to impose the district's first widespread parking charges.

Also Thursday, AC Transit directors increased fares.

Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District directors
voted 15- 3 for the higher tolls this morning, ignoring last-minute
pleas for an alternative.

"The original increase from $2 to $3 was supposed to be temporary,'
said David Kamm of Mill Valley. "Now we find that temporary means
'until we have to increase it again.'

"The working poor can't really afford this. Marin County is not made
of all rich people."

Susan Deluxe of Tiburon asked the directors, "Are you public servants
or self-servants? The legendary arrogance and unaccountability of the
Golden Gate Bridge district is alive and well."

Bridge directors who voted for the increase said they had little
choice, given that the district is staring at a $441 million deficit
over the next five years.

"This vote had to pass," said director Harold Brown. "It was a tough
one."

San Francisco Supervisor Tom Ammiano, another bridge director, agreed,
saying, "You have to share the pain and raise the fees and do a lot of
things we don't want to do.

"It's been a while since the tolls have been raised," Ammiano said --
11 years, to be exact. "You have to look at the big picture and hold
your nose and make the vote."

But other directors disagreed.

"The board has not been willing to bite the bullet," said director
Joseph Blue of San Francisco. "Salaries are out of control. For
someone not to say so is out of his tree."

Director Leland Yee, a San Francisco supervisor, said, "If we don't
control expenses, we're going to be looking at a $10 toll. For that
reason, I can't support this."

The financial situation was similarly bleak at BART, where directors,
needing to come up with money to plug the last $21 million of a $60
million deficit in its $370 million operating budget, had been
expected to approve some form of paid parking and to raise fares.

On a 6-3 vote, BART directors adopted a 5 percent fare increase
Thursday beginning Jan. 1 and $63-a-month reserved parking at up to 25
percent of each station's parking. The rest of the spaces would remain
free and up for grabs. About three-quarters of the stations have lots
or garages.

The transit agency's staff had recommended increasing fares by 15
cents plus an extra 10 percent as well as setting aside as much as 40
percent of parking spaces at 29 stations for paid, reserved parking.

The remainder of the deficit was plugged by shifting $6 million of $20
million the district received in a train lease-back deal from the
capital budget into the operating budget. The directors also are
relying on the future sale of a BART-owned office building in Millbrae
to make a planned $10 million payment into the capital budget.

The final plan approved by BART directors came after a long and
arduous process. The directors voted down six various proposals for
fare increases and parking charges before settling on one.

The budget compromise was proposed by Director Dan Richard of Walnut
Creek after the board failed repeatedly to get the six-vote
supermajority needed to pass fare-related motions.

Voting against the final proposal were directors Pete Snyder of
Dublin, James Fang of San Francisco and Roy Nakadegawa of Berkeley.

One of the many proposals that failed to get the needed six votes was
one to charge for all parking, with some monthly reserved spaces and
some unreserved daily spaces.

Directors from the outlying suburbs -- Richard, Snyder, Joel Keller of
Pittsburg and Tom Blalock of Fremont -- voted against it, while Fang,
Nakadegawa, Tom Radulovic of San Francisco, Carol Ward-Allen of
Oakland and Willie Kennedy of San Francisco were in favor.

Dividing along the same lines, the board then voted down a proposal by
Richard to charge for reserved monthly parking.

The meeting got lively when Fang came up with yet another suggestion:
a fee -- $2 at most stations, $1 at stations with less-used lots --
for all parking.

An angry Richard countered with a trickily worded substitute motion
that let the suburban contingent vote to end the discount BART gives
Muni Fast Pass users. BART charges Muni 76 cents a ride, a 34-cent
saving off the regular fare.

"We're not going to put all of this on East Bay riders," Richard said.

"This is totally ridiculous," Kennedy snapped back. "You've got our
hands tied."

"Yes," replied Richard. "I'm protecting my people."

After a heated exchange over the fairness of BART's fare structure and
the schism between urban and suburban directors, the board voted along
the same lines, 5-4, in favor of parking charges on all spaces, yet
again falling one vote short.

After more failed attempts to reach consensus, Richard huddled with
directors, one at a time, then made his proposal. The final plan
allows the Muni Fast Pass discount to continue, while BART and Muni
discuss a new discount deal.

While BART riders came out better than they might have expected, BART
employees did not. Despite an overflow crowd of union members, the
board refused to rescind a June 6 order to BART management to cut $7
million from the budget, including 72 layoffs.

BART's unions even brought along an economist, Paul Worthman, who
presented a budget analysis that contended that BART has hundreds of
millions of dollars in capital budgets that could be moved into the
operating budget to avert layoffs, fare increases, parking charges and
service cuts.

But directors said that money pays for such things as new ticket
machines and fare gates, improved train control systems and renovated
stations and rail cars.

Meanwhile, directors of AC Transit approved a plan Thursday night to
increase fares for adult passengers by 15 cents beginning Sept. 1.

The increase is needed to raise $3.2 million in annual revenue for the
bus system, which carries 230,000 riders a day in Alameda and Contra
Costa counties and to and from San Francisco, officials said.

Under the plan, the basic fare for adults will increase to $1.50 from
$1.35.

Children, seniors and disabled riders will pay 75 cents rather than 65
cents. And a trip across the Bay Bridge will cost adult riders $3
instead of $2.50.

One group will pay less. Teenagers and children from 5 to 17 years can
buy monthly bus passes for $15 rather than the current price of $27,
directors agreed.

FARE GAME

The cost of commuting is going up around the Bay Area:

BART

Fares will rise 5 percent in January. Each station will set aside up
to 25 percent of its parking spots for commuters to reserve for $63 a
month.

GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE

The board of directors approve a cash toll increase from $3 to
$5. Drivers using FasTrak will pay $4. The increases will take effect
in September.

AC TRANSIT

The fare for most passengers will go up in September, with the basic
fare rising from $1.35 to $1.50.



Chronicle staff writers Henry K. Lee and Jason B. Johnson contributed
to this report.