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SFMTA outlines structural shortfall and menu of funding packages as board begins budget work
Summary
SFMTA and the City Controller presented a multi-year fiscal forecast showing a growing gap between revenues and expenditures and the agency's staff offered six funding-and-cut packages that mix ballot measures, parking and administrative changes, and limited service reductions for the board's consideration.
The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, the City Controller's Office and SFMTA finance staff told the agency's board at a special budget workshop that Muni faces a structural deficit that will require a mix of new revenue, internal savings and policy changes to close.
City Controller Greg Wagner told the board the city's five-year forecast shows revenues growing more slowly than costs and warned the trends that have depressed general-fund growth are continuing. "We are gonna alter that trajectory. We're legally required to balance the budget," Wagner said, summarizing the document his office produced with the Mayor's Budget Office and the Board of Supervisors.
That citywide picture feeds directly into the SFMTA forecast because general-fund revenue shares are a major funding source for transit, Wagner and Ted Egan, the controller's chief economist, told the board. Egan said national economic risks ' including recent tariff-related shifts in economic sentiment ' have raised downside risk to the Bay Area outlook even as downtown recovery has shown some momentum.
SFMTA…
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