Council Gaining Traction in Securing Transit Funding toAvert Fiscal Cliff

As transit agencies across the state are barreling towards a fiscal cliff, the Bay Area Council and
its partners in the Survive + Thrive Coalition are gaining ground with the State Legislature to
secure funding to avert massive service cuts that could grind our region to a halt. On
Wednesday (April 26) the state Senate Democrats released their budget framework that
acknowledges a willingness to work together on a funding solution to keep our transit agencies
solvent, representing significant progress over earlier budget proposals.

Later that day, the Bay Area Council joined Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) and transit
agency leaders in a press conference calling for state action to fill the $5 billion operational
shortfall over 5 years and to invest in improvements to draw riders back to the system. The Bay
Area Council has been championing improvements to transform public transit into a better,
safer, cleaner, and more integrated network that will attract riders back, but we cannot make
those improvements if the systems fall apart now. Watch the press conference here.