santrans has a structural deficit. in fiscal year 2011 they reduced production -- introduced a reduction. they are continuing to propose contributions to fiscal year 2012. so, with the uncertainty for one of the partners, cal train already had a structural issue. they do not have dedicated or stable funding sources. in 2010 and 2011, service was reduced to help with the budget. we continued to rely on one time funds. our current contract is with amtrak, bringing change to the system. this is a writer should graf in what you see if the bust of 2003 and 2004, then writer ship -- ridership growing again. i think that the 2011 projection is very conservative and i expect it to be higher than that. in 2009 the cost recovery came over the fare box. looking at caltrain, you can see that we are right in line or on the upper end of our peers. something that everyone always asks, are you lean? cal train has no dedicated employees in the play sce of santrans. this slide is a measure of efficiency, operating expenses being fairly

cal train has no dedicated employees in the play sce of santrans. this slide is a measure of efficiency, operating expenses being fairly low compared to others. just to speak to the member agencies in san francisco, they provide contributions to the joint powers agreement. that agreement was put into being in 1992 when the service transferred to the joint powers board. each member subsidizes the operating budget based on each county's peak hours. the county in which you lived was the county that reflected the contribution to cal train. 2009, we froze member contributions based on the partners proposition. there was a two-step production proposed in agency contributions. we were able to solve our 2011 issue with a fund swap. this slide looks at member agency contributions to the operations of tal train. you will notice that it is about 40% from santa clara, 20% with rough percentages from san francisco. if the partners match the contribution from santrans, bta would pay 4.7 and san francisco would contribute 2.1. this slide looks different based on t

in terms of fiscal year 2012 and its operating budget, you mentioned that santrans has a proposed reduction. is that the way that it works? one takes the lead and everyone else follows? >> it is up to each individual organization to decide. santrans and others, if they choose not to that has been the historical pattern as each partner has matched the changes in contribution. >> can you explain the formulas for determining contribution from san francisco versus pta? >> it has changed over time, but originally in the late 90s it was based on an a.m. formula. in late 2005 the numbers were moving around too late to increase the contributions, so it was frozen. the theory being -- where you sleep is to contribute on behalf. supervisor elsbernd: is there any analysis on how it would impact different regions? is it across the board impacting all of the regions equally? >> one item that we have not finished is a title fix analysis to make sure that none of the adjustments are discriminatory in nature against different types of writers. that work is underway now. we could increase the recommendation

it strikes me that a lot of this conversation in the budget shortfall is centered around santrans and what is happening there. do we have a future -- an idea of what is happening there? >> yes, i have a perspective. i am also the chief financial officer. it has a structural deficit. what happened is it was a sales tax that was put in place in 1976 to consolidate us companies on the peninsula. then, samtrans got into other business units. they invested in trains, invested in by and supported the bart extension into san mateo county. when we look at the sum of all that, we are spending more than the revenues were originally intended to support. samtrans is holding a board workshop on thursday to discuss its financial situations and how that has led to the staff recommendation to reduce the contribution to caltrain. the board is not going to take action on thursday, but is going to take comment. will not actually take action on reducing the contribution until the may or june board meeting. >> so a decline in the sales tax revenue has led to -- >> it was more the additional business units

you have the santrans tracks, two bart stations, and a lot of existing parking already because of the other areas there. and the city owns over half of the land, so it is ready to go, gorgeous, similar to what san francisco has been able to do with pacbell, i think. and it is a comparable situation. it would bring at least 2 million visitors to downtown oakland and jack london, which is exactly what those areas need. to have two major project ready to go. they have gotten to the planning commission, the ninth project, and the jack london expansion. the lake mary area has almost finished its capital fund improvement, so you could walk in about 10 minutes. it will be pretty gorgeous as an area as a whole. you could walk to the new stadium. it would be an amazing location. so i'm optimistic on that end. i would guess that we are both competing for the new 49ers stadium, but that seems to be moving a lot slower because of the team's interest, i guess, in that place down south, so we are mostly, i think, looking at taking the coliseum area, at least in oakland, and making it much more not

you have the santrans tracks, two bart stations, and a lot of existing parking already because of the other areas there. and the city owns over half of the land, so it is ready to go, gorgeous, similar to what san francisco has been able to do with pacbell, i think. and it is a comparable situation. it would bring at least 2 million visitors to downtown oakland and jack london, which is exactly what th