that, but to the extent that it would and we would have significantly more revenue -- more ridership and less revenue, there are trade-offs that we would have to start considering as we start opening this up for free to more than half of the young people in the city, and i just want to reinforce that opening it up to half of the young people in the city is i think a huge step forward and one that i am proud that we were able to include in the budget. i believe, although mr. murphy stated somewhat to the contrary, that we're following the spirit of the c.a.c. recommendations, and this is what we can do. the board has already set aside for this purpose plus the anticipated funds from the region that would otherwise be coming to us if we were to expand this to all young people. we would have to use funds which would otherwise be coming to us, which is counter the recommendation, and that is where the trade offs come.

this is a pilot. it has been put forth and recommended as a pilot from the start from both advocates and the supervisors as well as from staff, and as a pilot, we should limit its scope in terms of the number of people who are in it, because we do not really know where the operating impacts may be. you may have noted during the standard presentation by ms. nelson, the crowding on our system is increasing, and some folks to write some of the bus lines that carry a lot of school kids after school know that some of those lines are already at crush status. we have estimated what costs will be for the additional service to we now have to provide as a result of making this free for the low-income young people, but those really are not factored into our expenses, so to the extent that those costs materialize, that is

going to be within our operating budget, still looking at the impacts we get, the impact in terms of truancy and the other goals of the program, i think it is important. that is why we do pilots to take a small slice and see what the impacts are. the other issue is that since the funding was largely one-time in nature, at the end of the pilot, we will have a hole in our budget. the more we limit it, the smaller that will be in two years to fill. supervisor campos and the other advocates have been very insistent and determined it to work with us to find additional funding sources, and i have no doubt in their sincerity and desire to do so, but we do have a challenging fiscal environment at the state and federal levels,

and it is not really clear where those additional moneys would come from, so we somewhat limit our exposure by limiting this, as well. finally, i would say in the long term, what this whole initiative has brought to light for me is the idea that we should be looking at our fare structure, more specifically as it relates to men come as opposed to how it relates to age. under our current system, high- income seniors and high-income young people pay less to ride muni them low-income adults, and i do not think that is a tenable situation, so to the extent we have learning's from this, i will be working in the next couple of years to see how we can extend their reduced or eliminated fares for low-income people, independent of age, and

if more revenue comes in, that is something we should at least be mindful of the desire to do or being mindful of that. i just want to credit supervisor campos and his colleagues on the board and particularly the community folks who have worked so hard, not just to issue a call for a change in the young fairs, but to help with the analysis, the planning, the policy, expressing willingness to work with us to find funding, on about winning the program, on doing education and outreach, and to find the funding for it, so i think it has been a phenomenal effort. whenever version of this that the m.t.a. board adopts, it will be a huge step forward for transit in the city and in the country, and so with that, and it forward to hearing from the public. chairman brinkman: thank you.

i think we will move on to public comment. i know a lot of you have been waiting for a long time. and the translation services, i know you have been going for a long time, as well. the first comment cards that we have turned in, and then perhaps we will give the board a break after we hear that public comment. >> -- secretary boomer: thank you, madam chair. we have students in another room or outside, so we will call a number of speaker cards in advance to allow them to come into the room and line up so we can proceed and hear from them. stephanie. i will read about five at once at this point. stephanie. the lease. angelina, tim, tina, and lorena.

are any of those people here? thank you. and for people who have not commented before, let me just remind you that we are going with a two-minute time it. you will hear one warning bell at 30 seconds, and when you hear the louder bell, that is your two minutes, and i do not want to be rude, but i will have to cut you off publicly at that point. thank you. >> my name is stephanie. i am a teacher from a high school. some of the students had to leave early. there are students here that are during the spring break. and we are here because we think this is such an important issue, and this idea is really visionary for the free muni for all youth. it is really visionary and also really simple. i want to urge the board. you have four options before

you, and i want you to put forward this and vote on it for providing this free to all young people. it is simple. just in my school community, we have more students who qualify for the free lunch than those that have families that will go through the bureaucracy. just by doing this for the youth, you will not be able to reach everybody. by providing it for them all, you will bring in wealthier families, middle-class families it may be right on the edge, and more of them i think would be quite more likely to use public transit if they had some members of their family who could ride for free. as you noted, this measure is here because of the incredible grass-roots organizing that has happened over the past few years, so it is very clear that the community has done the work to determine that this is

needed endurable. i realize i am close to out of time, so i just want to point out that the overall budget, the amount that would be needed to make it free for all of the young people is 1% of the overall mta budget. the funding has already been identified. it exists, and i see this only as a win-win four of the san francisco families, that muni as well as the students the also come in from outside, and i know for my students, most to do not live in san francisco, they will be more likely to come in and take advantage of this. secretary boomer: [leading names] chairman brinkman: i am sorry, secretary boomer. can we go out of order would be set with the supervisors?

-- can we go out of order with the supervisors? supervisor: i want to thank everyone who has come out to push for this free for the youth. and i want to thank mr. reiskin and his staff. my name is david campos. we have been working on this issue for close to one year now, and we came the year before, and started to talk about free muni for kids, for use, we wanted to make sure it was not an unfunded mandate, and at the time when we had those discussions, the message to was was if you find the money to pay for it, we will do it. part of the wonders if the folks who said that at the time just did not think that the money

would be found, and that is why it was easy for them to say that, but we took that message seriously, and we took that message to heart, and we have found the money. you have heard from us. you have seen a very detailed funding plan that outlines this for a two-year private. fat, more money than the two- year pilot would come from. and if we have the money, and money that would not otherwise be available to muni, it is not money that comes from parking meters or any other operational fund that could be used to improve services, this is money targeted for this purpose, if we have the money, why would we in san francisco not have free muni for all of the kids? and you have before you a resolution that includes a number of options, and the one that has been recommended is only doing it free for low- income kids. i respect that perspective, but

let me say that i think that that option is not the way to go. the fact is that there are many policy reasons why all kids should have free access to public transit. we are trying to create the future generation of riders, and that requires that we make public transit something that all kids regardless of income due. we also want to make sure that there is no stigma that comes with public transit, that we do not have a situation where public transit becomes the mode of transport for only low- income, poor kids. public transit is something that should be available to everyone. chairman brinkman: could you please wrap up? i do not mean to be rude, but i have to ask you a question in order for you to keep going. >> -- supervisor campos: they

could not do it for only three months, so how can they do it when something that is more long-term and that an even more citywide? i think the message of choice here is clear, and i respectfully ask that you made history today and make public transit free to all children in san francisco. [cheers and applause] supervisor kim: thank you for letting us speak out of order. i am supervisor jane king m.. -- jane kim. we have people from all over, bayview, which meant. it speaks to how popular this is an needed. and i think we all in this room agree that we want to provide

this unique access for free for all youth -- provide this muni access. i am here to express my support. in our budget, we make a lot of tough decisions, and in the decisions that we make, we often show where our values and priorities are. i think we could say that people should have access to the great city of san francisco. they should be able to ride for free, and it should not be based on income. i will speak on the altar to of providing be free muni. i would still support this proposition, but i want to say that i think it puts the mta in a difficult position around the budget. by assuming a $4 million generation of revenue, i think we will have, definitely have a shortfall from that amount next year, and i say that because it's only 50% of our young people are eligible under the free lunch or low-income, i

would say that 80% of the young muni riders are low-income. i think $4 million or 50% is a very lofty and ambitious number, and i think we would be putting ourselves in financial risk by supporting that proposition as we move forward, and i think we should really give this two-year private a chance, and we can see the generation of writers ship, and also, young people able to access so many of the great things we have in the city. thank you for your time, and i want to thank the commission folks are being here and being consistent and coming to the meetings. i know you have to hear them all, but it speaks to their support, as well. thank you. [applause] chairman brinkman: thank you,

supervisor. >> i appreciate the work you are doing around this. i have to tell you, free muni for all kids actually encourages families to ride muni, and that is what we want. think of those families that will join them, and that is what i look for, not just our public school kids but all kids and their families, and i see that when i see people coming on the weekend, going to movies, the parks, all of our museums. i see families, and this is what free muni for all kids will do, and that is what we want. we want that shift in ideology, that we do not need a car to ride around san francisco. "can take muni." and, "if my kids are taking

muni, i can take muni," and that is what we want. that is what i want to encourage you. that is what the board of education is thinking about, free muni for all kids, and i want to let you know that you have my support on this. the supervisors, their perspectives about what this will do for mta and the work you will have to do going forward, but i do so appreciate you thinking about our kids for free on the muni, because that will bring the families to the mta, and good afternoon to all of you. applause] let's go back. applause] secretary boomer: let me read more names.

[reading names] >> i am a community organizer. i have been here several times to speak with you. i am here to urge you to take on free muni for all youth. we hear that the recommendation is for free muni for low-income use, but san francisco is a transit first city. but this needs to be for all youth, as you know, san francisco is very expending -- expensive. this can all add up quickly. the sec lead to a crisis. san francisco currently has the smallest child population of any major u.s. city, and while it is a complex issue that involves a tremendous amount of things we can do outside of the realm of the mta, including affordable housing novel around work, bringing jobs to working-class

families and other things, you know, a very small investment that we can do here in the city today, right now, is this investment in making it free for all young people. in comparison to what that can get you for affordable housing, that would give you 17. we could say to the thousands of families in san francisco that we care about them, that the city really, really wants them to be year, and we are taking steps to alleviate the suffering that they are going through, so i urge you to make a historical statement today and make muni free for all youth. secretary boomer: thank you. [reading names] >> hello, my name is -- i am a huge organizer in chinatown. i am here to really urge you to

consider making muni free-for- all youth. meeting our climate objective goals. in san francisco is really committed, if this board is really committed to get kids out of cars and use public transit, we need to provide a way to get kids to think about that. the free muni for youth would get them out of cars. it would help reduce our carbon footprint as a whole. we have seen 60% of all traffic in san francisco be made by a car. young people make up some fraction of that. we really want them to start taking the buses. in new york city where they have run this pilot for many years, we have seen great success. it is a culture about getting on the buses. it is not something that they just depend on, they want to get on. free passes to all young people.

we want to see san francisco be modeled after new york, be modeled after portland, oregon. thank you. secretary boomer: thank you. chair brinkman: do we have a group of more people coming? i think he is just concerned that there are too many people standing. secretary boomer: if you are not coming up to speak with something specific, please have a seat. [reading names] >> tim is not here, as you can tell, but i am here. i am judy.

tim is an organizer. he has a message to share about the free muni. this excludes 18-year-olds that are still in school. urging that we implement a pilot program for all use, and that includes the 18-year-olds that are still in school. we really encourage you to include the 18-year-old full- time high school students. chairman brinkman: supervisor avalos? sorry, i would just have supervisor avalos, up. supervisor avalos: i am here to

speak on behalf of the free access for the youth in the city. i have actually been really impressed with the effort that has gone on now for over a year to win this great victory that would go for working families and people in san francisco. i have been part of many hearings and many processes at the board of supervisors, and in terms of the work of public transportation -- education, transportation, when the young people have done, above what i have seen other groups that are well funded, that represent the wealthy interests in san francisco, what they used have done over the past year is remarkable. -- what the youth has done is remarkable. we are creating the next generation of transit riders in the city. i believe that our young people in san francisco should have access to this form of transit.

we have money for the next couple of years to be able to pay for that service, and i want to thank you for that effort for making that happen. i believe that this time has come. i am willing to work with you as a member of the board of supervisors in the coming years for how we can look at funding this with the budget on the general fund side and on the mta side, so i encourage you to support this great effort, and thank you for your consideration. chairman brinkman: thank you, supervisor. secretary boomer: [reading names] >> i am 17 years old, and i ride the muni. on in here to tell you also issues that i see.

number one, 18-year-olds still in school, that is one of them. i turn 18 and a couple of months, so what makes you all think that if i am struggling to find 75 cents, i will pay $4 a day to and from school? i have no job or no money that would support may. i am living with a family that has kids of their own to make sure that they have the things that they need, and if education is free in our country, why do we have to suffer to try to find money to go to school and back from school? life for us would be so much easier it there was bus fare for the young people 18 and down would be free, and these are some letters from mlk and some

other schools in supporting this for all young people, so thank you for listening and for your support to make this free for all young people. chairman brinkman: thank you. secretary boomer: [reading names] >> hi, i am lorena, and i am a director of engagement at a center. you know, we have been here talking about free muni for all youth. we have been here for three hours. we definitely as an organization seen the need for the free muni for our young people, and we

would like to invite our leaders to speak about it. >> i am a senior from missionize go, and i live far away from mission. i live in the sunset district, and i had a sister, and she had to pay for me and my sister to come to school. i think it is not fair, because when i it was $10 for me and my sister, and two years ago, it increased to like $15, and now, i am 18, and i have a few months before i am 18. $5. i think it is not fair, because i am going to school. it is not fair because we do not have money to pay at school, so

why? school is supposedly free. so that is the message. chairman brinkman: thank you. >> hi, my name is maria. they all go to mission high. i work with them. first of all, i think that we should get free muni for the youth. just to get here, we spend $5. and right now, we have to go to another program, and we have to pay another $5 just to go over there. it is really hard. most of us have full-time parents working in the morning and night, and it is really hard for them. i mean, they are already

struggling to support us and just to go to school. it i have to spend $2 every time i come back and forth. you know, we really want you to support us. chairman brinkman: thank you. >> i am from mission high school. i will be translating from -- for her. >> [speaking spanish] >> this is my second time it being here. i will keep coming to support the people.

>> [speaking spanish] >> i have a question, and it is mostly -- we have the same question. if we have no money -- >> [speaking spanish] >> how come they keep on raising the price for everything? and we cannot get free muni? >> [speaking spanish] >> we hope to have your