San Francisco County, CA November 3, 1998 General
Smart Voter

Oppose MUNI/BART pass increase

By Tahnee Stair

Candidate for Board of Supervisors

This information is provided by the candidate
My name is Tahnee Stair, I'm a temporary office worker, and a candidate for Supervisor this year. I ride MUNI and BART to work in San Francisco. That the city would consider raising the fee of a monthly fast pass for those who ride BART in the city demands our protest. Increases in fares are another tax on the people who can barely survive economically in this city as it is. Instead of making the people who have the least resources pay, the city and the supervisors should support and improve MUNI by taxing those who really benefit from its services: the big stores, hotels, banks and corporations downtown whose workers and customers use public transit.

MUNI SHOULD BE FREE TO RIDERS! MAKE BIG BUSINESS PAY! For working people, especially those who can not afford cars, MUNI and BART are our only means of getting to work. It is our only transportation to medical appointments, shopping, and recreation. Making BART, a service the people already pay sales tax for, even more inaccessible is a crime, is another example of the fact that the city government is not working in our interests. A ten dollar increase for riders who take BART to work or school is a 29% increase, while rents in this city sky rocket, tuition continues to rise, and General Assistance and other entitlements have been cut. In a year where the city has a surplus budget and the rate of development is staggering, raising fares without any improvement in services is really a tax on those who can least afford it. This policy would be disproportionately prejudicial against the African American, Latino, and young people in San Francisco.

Many people today in San Francisco can not afford to purchase a fast pass at the current rate. Those proposing the fast pass increase seem to be out of touch with what $35, let alone $45 means to students or the average worker. Today $35 buys one half of your average academic introductory text book, it pays for a lab test to see if you need antibiotics, not even to see a doctor. It pays for a week's groceries at a corner market. It is electricity or heat for a month. It is often an entire day of work or more, just so that we can get to work.

MUNI should be run by a democratically-elected board made up of riders and MUNI workers. MUNI drivers have one of the hardest jobs imaginable and they should not be scapegoated for the crisis MUNI is in.

NO fare increases! No cuts in services! Make MUNI free!

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Created from information supplied by the candidate: September 22, 1998 10:59
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