Policymakers debate how to raise money to save Bay Area transit agencies as fiscal cliffs loom

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- Five years after the start of the COVID pandemic, several Bay Area transportation agencies are facing huge budget deficits as ridership languishes behind pre-pandemic numbers.

Agencies such as BART, Muni and Caltrain are among the most impacted, with some facing fiscal shortfalls in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

With state and federal pandemic funding running out, SPUR, a San Francisco-based public policy nonprofit, hosted a virtual meeting Wednesday encouraging lawmakers to take action.

"There is not much fat left to cut I think is the most important take away here when you really get into the guts of the agency operations," said Annie Fryman, SPUR's director of special projects.

SPUR says without new money, transportation agencies around the Bay Area would likely face deep service cuts.

MORE: Bay Area leaders propose sales tax measure to save BART and Muni

A possibility State Senator Scott Wiener says has to be avoided.

"That would be horrific for the Bay Area. For the people who rely on transit, for drivers because it'll make traffic congestion dramatically worse," Wiener said.

Wiener says while lawmakers in Sacramento are well aware of the reality facing transit agencies, discussions are still ongoing as the state grapples with its own budget deficits.

The state senator says he's co-authoring a new proposal that would ask Bay Area voters to pass a new sales tax measure to fund transportation agencies.

A move that former BART director Debora Allen believes is risky.

"I have said all along for the last really two years, three years, there needs to be a plan 'B'," Allen said.

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Allen says she recognizes that BART and other agencies can't cut hundreds of millions of dollars from their budgets without decimating their own services.

But she does believe there are certain areas where smart cuts could save money.

"There are plenty of places to find savings at BART. You can start with the management and you can start to reorganize the management. But instead of that they've been growing the management. For the past four years they've been doing exactly the opposite of what they should have been doing," Allen said.

With no guarantee of where an influx of new money will come from, Wiener believes the potential ballot measure is still the best option.

But he knows getting that accomplished won't be easy.

"The polling shows that this ballot measure is winnable. It won't be a landslide. It's not a slam dunk by any stretch but it is something that can win," Wiener said.