BART BOARD PASSES INTERIM BUDGET, $22M DEFICIT REMAINS BART Looks to Contract Talks to Eliminate Remaining Deficit

OAKLAND, CA – Faced with a struggling economy that has resulted in

declining revenues and escalating costs, BART’s Board of Directors passed

an interim budget today that cuts expenses and raises revenues. Still, a

$22 million deficit remains.

The $642.4 million Fiscal Year 2010 (FY10) interim annual operating

budget reflects the realities of running a transit agency in an economy

where ridership and sales tax revenues are dropping and health care and

benefit costs are rising.

“The interim budget will be updated after labor negotiations have

been completed to incorporate the financial impact of the new agreements,”

General Manager Dorothy Dugger said. “Hopefully, the new labor contracts

will allow us to balanced expenses with revenues. Labor and benefit costs

constitute about 73% of the base operating expense budget. So, if

long-term changes to the wage and benefit levels are not addressed during

labor negotiations, additional cost savings thru actions such as service

cuts and staff reductions will be necessary to address the expense growth

and structural imbalance between revenues and expenses.















BUDGET’S IMPACT ON CUSTOMERS



The budget deals with cutting costs through expenses reductions, which

include:

Eliminating 100 positions – most of which are vacant as a result of a

hiring freeze

Returning to train service every 20 minutes on nights/weekends from

every 15 minutes starting in September

One route service on nights/weekends on the peninsula starting in

September



The FY10 interim operating budget also raises revenues by:

Moving up the regularly scheduled Jan. 2010 cost of living based fare

increase of 6.1% to July 2009

Increasing lowest priced fare from $1.50 to $1.75 (would be equal to or

less than ...