SFMTA warns of large budget shortfall; seeks regional funding, modest fee changes and operational savings

During the May 15 Budget and Appropriations Committee hearing, SFMTA Executive Director Jeffrey Tumlin outlined the transit agency’s revenue challenge and the strategy the agency is proposing to avoid deep service cuts. "Our transit revenue is down 62% compared to fiscal year 18–19," Tumlin said, and he added that parking revenue is about 38% lower than in 2018–19.

Tumlin told supervisors the agency anticipates a major budget shortfall in coming years — he cited a $214,000,000 projected deficit for FY25–26 and also discussed a range of estimates approaching $222 million to $240 million in scenarios presented to the board. To reduce the gap the agency proposes modest increases across fares, fees and fines while protecting the $3 cash fare, closing part of the CLIPr discount (from 50¢ to 25¢ in year one), and continuing indexing for many fee programs.

Tumlin emphasized a multi-track approach: pursue regional funding legislation, pursue further efficiencies and defend equity programs. He identified SB 1031 (Sen. Scott Wiener’s bill) as the centerpiece of regional funding efforts to stabilize transit and BART, arguing that the region must act in concert to avoid cascading failures that would harm local transit.

Supervisors pressed for additional revenue-generation ideas and a public plan: Supervisor Mariana Malgar urged the agency to develop a bolder strategy around assets and branding to generate income, and Tumlin pointed to pilot brand partnerships and the agency’s Building Progress program as early steps. Public commenter Cyrus Hall urged the board not to delay action and warned that staffing reductions and service cuts could begin before July 2026 if funding isn’t secured.

Next steps: the committee continued items 1–3 and requested additional analyses and trailing legislation to be returned at the May 22 meeting. The SFMTA briefing and the agency’s fiscal strategy will be part of the follow-up review.