The N-Judah Chronicles

There’s two pieces of news regarding Muni (sorta). The first is one you may have missed: State Sen. Mark Leno made good on a promise during his election campaign to once again introduce a bill that would allow counties to vote to raise a local vehicle license tax with a majority vote. I remember hearing then-candidate Leno talk about this in 2008 and was a tad skeptical if this would even leave the State Senate, but it has.
Such a plan is more than equitable. Although Leno’s bill does not allow candidates to restore the VLF to the pre-Schwarzengger cut levels (the vote could only raise it 2% of the total value of the vehicle, including the state’s portion), the fact that local counties would have the option to vote themselves a tax, or say “Hell No” to a tax, would restore some local control over funding. Gov. Doofinator’s arbitrary cut set in motion a good portion of the state’s revenue problem, and it had a particularly damning effect on transit and roads (as did his looting, but you know that already if you read this, so no need to go over that point again).
What’s interesting about this bill is that a Board of Supervisors in California would have to pass it with a 2/3rds majority (meaning conservative counties need not fear this ever being on their ballot in the first place) and would need a hefty majority to pass. So it’s not like suddenly every county is going to pass this – I seriously doubt such a plan would even pass in car-dependent Los Angeles County. It is, however a chance for San Francisco County to go its own way and have local money go to dedicated local projects, such as streets and transit. Besides, wouldn’t this be better than borrowing billions and blowing out our local budget that way?
The second piece of news was the report that someone got sick and barfed all over a Muni Metro train, and the operator wouldn’t let people off. While news reports were rather dry (oh did I just say that?), TK from 40 Going on 28 wrote up the scene in screenplay form, and well, if you missed it, here it is.