AC Transit: Mary King explains why union asked to take cut

AC Transit Zero Emission Bus 

In Monday's Bay Area News Group websites The San Jose Mercury News and the Tri Valley Herald
in San Jose, California and Southern Alameda County, AC Transit Interim General Manager Mary King explained why the East Bay California public transit service provider is asking the 1,750 member Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) to accept a contract it imposed on them.

King starts by explaining that "Our future — and the future of affordable and environmentally sound transportation for Alameda and Contra Costa counties' riders — is in jeopardy," then tells the reader what this space has been trying to drill into the collective heads of many for some time: revenue froms sales and property taxes has decreased.

But what King does not explain in numbers is that AC Transit's total operating revenues have dropped by $12 million in one year, and all one has to do to understand this is download and read the AC Transit budget here: BUDGET.

Only service cut-backs and labor costs reductions can make up the $56 million deficit this revenue problem has, in part, caused.