We are working on keeping Muni rolling with the Muni Funding Working Group.
We love Muni. Our riders love Muni. San Francisco loves Muni.
Muni is the oldest publicly owned and operated transit agency in a major American city, and it has been serving San Francisco for more than a century. Muni supports opportunity and equity by helping people of all ethnicities and income levels get where they need to go. That includes work, school, medical appointments, grocery stores and more.
We need Muni and want to see it thrive well into the future. But love alone can’t sustain the system.
So, we and the San Francisco Controller’s Office have created the Muni Funding Working Group.
The Muni Funding Working Group will meet twice a month through January 2025 to consider options to address our financial needs. Both to support Muni and the agency, overall.
The next meeting is Oct. 17 at 2 p.m. at 1455 Market Street, 22nd Floor. All meetings are open to the public. You can attend in person or watch online. A link to watch will be added to the meeting webpage before the meeting begins.
How we got here
We continue to face significant challenges as San Francisco recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic. Our post-pandemic Muni ridership continues to increase, and we are spending less money. But our parking and transit revenues are way down since the pandemic. Plus, forces out of our control, like San Francisco’s slow economic recovery, are impacting our finances.
After we passed our two-year budget this spring, we learned that we would be receiving less money from the city and state than we had anticipated. This is because the city and state are also facing financial challenges. So, we now expect:
- A $15 million budget gap in Fiscal Year 2025-2026.
- A $240 - $320 million shortfall in Fiscal Year 2026-2027. That’s when our federal pandemic relief funds run out, and state and regional relief funding is cut.
We need to act now to make sure San Franciscans can continue getting the transportation services they depend on.
We continue to pursue state and federal funding. However, it is unlikely that the state or federal governments will commit to long-term funding increases that close our budget gap. That’s where the Muni Funding Working Group comes in.
Thousands of San Franciscans depend on Muni to get where they are going.
How the Muni Funding Working Group can help
The Muni Funding Working Group will make recommendations on how we can close our budget gap. The working group will consider policy options in four categories:
- Efficiency Improvements: streamlining our systems and processes to reduce operating costs
- Service Cuts: reducing service across all our divisions, not just Muni
- Revenue Enhancements: increasing fares, fines, fees and taxes
- Service Enhancements: offering improved service that attracts more customers and builds support for additional funding
SFMTA staff will present the policy options to the Muni Funding Working Group. The group will discuss the options and choose the ones it wants to recommend. The Controller’s Office then will produce a report on the group’s recommendations. We expect that report to be published in early 2025.
Who is in the Muni Funding Working Group
The San Francisco Controller’s Office leads the Muni Funding Working Group. It is made up of city officials, SFMTA Board members, union and business leaders, transportation experts, transit advocates and others. We hope that having so many perspectives and interests represented will help us build consensus around how to move forward. The members are:
- Chris Arvin, Vice Chair of the SFMTA Citizens' Advisory Council
- Anthony Ballester, President of the Transport Workers Union Local 250A
- Tilly Chang, Director of the San Francisco County Transportation Authority
- Sean Elsbernd, Mayor's Chief of Staff
- Rodney Fong, President and CEO of the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce
- Kristin Hardy, Vice President of the Service Employees International Union Local 1021
- Jon Hee, Chinatown Transportation Research and Improvement Project
- Steve Heminger, Director on the SFMTA Board
- Fiona Hinze, Director on the SFMTA Board
- Kathleen Kelly, Transportation Expert
- Rafael Mandelman, City Supervisor, District 8 and Chair of the San Francisco County Transportation Authority
- Myrna Melgar, City Supervisor, District 7 and Vice-Chair of the San Francisco County Transportation Authority
- Robin Pam, Parent Organizer with KidSafe
- Seleta Reynolds, Chief Innovation Officer for the LA Metro
- Mia Satya, Transit Justice Organizer
- Alex Sweet, Mayor's Transportation Advisor
- Kim Tavaglione, Executive Director of the SF Labor Council
- Laura Tolkoff, Transportation Policy Director with SPUR
- Jeffrey Tumlin, SFMTA Director of Transportation
- Jaime Viloria, Muni Equity Working Group and the Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corporation
- Greg Wagner, City Controller
- Janelle Wong, Interim Executive Director of San Francisco Transit Riders
We are working to secure funding for all our operations, including safe infrastructure that supports people who bike and roll.
More than just Muni
Even though this group is called the Muni Funding Working Group, the policy options it recommends will not only affect Muni. Our projected budget shortfalls impact the entire agency. So, any solutions will also impact the entire agency. We also need to fund our paratransit service, programs that keep our streets safe and other basic transportation services.
Every San Franciscan deserves and benefits from a safe and strong transportation system. And we are working to develop the resources we need to support that system.
If you’d like to learn more, go to the Muni Funding Working Group webpage.