Santa Cruz Metro in crosshairs of proposed legislation - Santa Cruz Sentinel

SANTA CRUZ — Proposed state legislation threatens Santa Cruz Metro’s existence with a potential of $6 million worth of cuts. .

Metro’s Board of Directors received an update at a board meeting Friday from two members of the Sacramento advocacy firm SYASL: Shaw Yoder Antwih Schmelzer and Lange. Firm partner Josh Shaw and Legislative and Regulatory Advocate Michael Pimentel briefed the board on Assembly Bill 1350, 2012 and 2176. AB 1350 would require free transit for people 18 years old and younger; AB 2012 would require free transit for people ages 65 and older and AB 2176 would require free transit for UC, CSU and California Community Colleges students.

“If these pass you can kiss Metro goodbye,” said Director Bruce McPherson.

Jayme Ackemann, Metro’s director of marketing, communications and customer service, said if all three bills were to pass, Santa Cruz Metro would lose about $6 million [annually] in revenue. “It’s a somewhat insurmountable loss of revenue that has to be addressed in some fashion if we were to move forward with any of these bills,” she said.

“Do these legislatures have any idea that what they’re doing is taking service away from the very people they think that they’re helping?” said Director Mike Rotkin. “Between a half and two-thirds of our riders are UCSC students.”

Pimentel said they are working with transit agencies across the state to assess the impact of these bills, such as losing fare revenues, service impacts and increased operational pressures. He said the firm is trying to get the legislature to approach these bills in a way that is more understanding of their impacts on transportation agencies.

“We understand that for Santa Cruz Metro, a potential shortfall, if fares were to be waived for any segment of the population or in mass, would be close to $10 million dollars,” Pimentel said. “And from our knowledge of experiences during the Great Recession, we know that when Santa Cruz Metro was facing a $6 million shortfall, that led to some severe service cuts, layoffs for dozens of your employees, and those are the things we want to avoid.”

AB 1350 is now in the Senate and is expected to be heard in the Senate Transportation Committee in late spring/early summer, Pimentel said. AB 2012 and AB 2176 were recently introduced in the State Assembly and are expected to be referred to the Assembly Transportation Committee, he said.

The board also received a federal legislative update and news from Metro staff about a new grant and the agency’s free fare program.

• Chris Giglio of the Washington, D.C. advocacy firm Capital Edge discussed the reauthorization of the 2015 Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act, or the FAST Act, to govern U.S. federal funding for surface transportation. Reauthorization requires at least $100 billion in additional funds, he said.

• Earlier this month, Metro received a $1.36 million discretionary grant from Caltrans’ Federal Transit Administration. The grant award will allow Metro to replace two 1998 diesel-fueled buses with two new CNG-fueled buses. Wondimu Mengistu, Metro’s grants/legislative analyst, said this grant is important to Metro because it will help the agency continue to reduce the number of obsolete buses in its fleet and improve air quality for the community. The two CNG buses will also lower Metro’s operating budget because it will have lower maintenance costs and because CNG is less costly than the same amount of diesel fuel, he said.

• The board adopted amendments to Metro’s free fare program for riders who are legally blind. These amendments are changing the name of the card provided to legally blind individuals to “Access Card”; to provide more information on obtaining the Access Card; to clarify that individuals with visual impairments are still eligible to apply for a discount fare; and to provide more information to out-of-service-area visitors.

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Santa Cruz Metro in crosshairs of proposed legislation - Santa Cruz Sentinel
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