BART faces fiscal cliff and potential increased government oversight
ORINDA - With BART facing a fiscal cliff, one Bay Area lawmaker says he won't support giving the transit agency any more taxpayers dollars.
At least.. not the direction things are going now.
State Senator Steven Glazer from Orinda is blasting members of a transportation committee - saying there needs to be more oversight of how BART is spending taxpayer dollars, and has even resigned from that committee in protest of how the money is currently being spent.
Budget estimates show BART could need an additional $300 million per year to balance its budget after federal emergency funds run out, otherwise there could be serious cuts to service that would impact millions of riders who depend on it.
Charles Riley is an usher at the Chase Center and has worked every Warriors home-game since the new stadium opened in 2018. He commutes into the city on BART from his home in Livermore.
"If you drive you've got tolls and parking. You still have some problems, so BART is a little less of the problems for me," says Riley.
He says BART isn't the perfect solution either, due to issues with reliability and safety - concerns shared by State Senator Steven Glazer.
"BART is so critical to the entire Bay Area, and certainly to my constituents," says Glazer. He was a member of the Bay Area Public Transit committee, a group made up of lawmakers in Sacramento designed to address issues facing our transit system, and push for state funding to help close budget gaps.
On Tuesday, he resigned from that committee writing his his resignation letter, "there is no guarantee that these agencies will spend taxpayer dollars sensibly without adequate oversight."
"BART seems to be operating on the fiscal edge. They never seem to have enough money to do the things that they say are necessary to have an efficient system," says Glazer.
BART received more than $1.5 billion in federal funds during COVID to keep the system moving with ridership down by more than 90%.
If ridership doesn't rebound, Glazer's concern is that BART will ask the state for more taxpayer money to make up the difference.
"I want to support more funding, more resources for BART as long as fiscal oversight to make sure the money is being spent correctly," says Glazer.
"The Senator's perspective is to push on the issue of fiscal accountability, but I think that our agency has worked very hard. We have very talented people," says Bevan Dufty, a BART board member and chair of the audit committee. He says while he understands Glazer's concerns, he feels it's unfair to criticize BART too harshly because of unprecedented challenges due to the pandemic.
"It's clear that there are some sticking points here, and we're going to do our best," says Dufty.
Riley says everyone should have someone watching the purse strings. "Everybody should have someone overseeing how they're spending their money, especially if it's a large company like BART," says Riley.
Senator Glazer has introduced a bill that would require more funding for oversight of taxpayer dollars allotted to BART. A similar bill passed the legislature last year, but was vetoed by Governor Newsom.