By Calvin Welch, HANC Board
HANC presented its position on future MUNI funding and announced its membership in Muni Now, Muni Forever (https://muniforever.org/about ), a citywide coalition gearing up to fight MUNI cuts which will be certain to be part of Mayor Lurie's budget. Jaime Viloria, Outreach and Organizing Manager of the San Francisco Transit Riders, a fellow member of Muni Now, Muni Forever, presented a time line and possible set of revenue proposals being discussed by the SFMTA. Most of these SFMTA proposals center on increasing parking fees, property tax increases and a parcel tax. All are waiting for the SFMTA Board to pass a budget. Few are hopeful given the fact that the Board has already voted to cut services (see last month’s Voice for lines and cuts). These cuts will seriously affect the Haight-Ashbury as consolidation of the 6 and 21 is proposed as well as ending service for the 6 and 7 at Market Street.
Mayor Lurie made one new appointment to the SFMTA Board and he cast the deciding 4th vote to cut services. Within days, the Mayor announced that WAYMO, owned by Google, would be granted access to Market Street after previously announcing that the Chair of Google would head up his committee of billionaires deciding how to "revive" Market Street. Seems MUNI riders as opposed to WAYMO riders will be less than welcomed in the new downtown.
HANC has called on Muni Now and Muni Forever to adopt the following positon on new revenue for MUNI:
HANC would support the following revenue measure:
1. A local annual commercial vehicle license fee, indexed to the rate of inflation, aimed at commercial vehicles that impact our public streets and impeded transit and pedestrian use:
A. tech shuttle buses,
B. automated driverless vehicles,
C. electric scooters
2. A utility tax surcharge on large commercial users of the electricity, exempting residential uses and focusing on AI electricity users and server farms.
HANC would actively OPPOSE any measure which would increase either fares or sales taxes.