MTA says state’s $36 million will shore up next year’s budget but not avert May 1 service reductions

The Municipal Transportation Agency plans to carry out a 10% reduction in Muni service beginning May 1 while using a newly announced $36 million in state transit aid to stabilize the system in the following fiscal year, MTA Director Nat Ford told the Board of Supervisors’ Budget & Finance Committee. "It will be a smaller system, but it will be a well maintained and better managed system in terms of its size," Ford said in opening remarks about the agency’s two‑year budget.

Ford described a multi‑year erosion of state transit assistance that left MTA with large structural deficits. He said the agency’s FY2011 gap is roughly $80–84 million and that the $36 million is not available to advance into the current year: "It will be going solely into next year's budget," he said, adding that the MTA expects to use the funding and other measures to produce a small surplus in FY2012.

Supervisors repeatedly pushed Ford on whether the state money could roll back the May 1 cuts. Board President David Chu said many riders had hoped the $36 million would restore service. "Could you talk…