MTA APPROVES FARE HIKE BOARD RAISES RATES DESPITE PLEAS FROM RIDERS, MAYOR HAHN.

Byline: Lisa Mascaro Staff Writer

Despite emotional protests from bus riders, the MTA board voted on Thursday to approve a $10-a-month bus-pass hike and other new fares to help balance the agency's $2.8 billion budget.

With Mayor James Hahn among those dissenting, the board voted 9-4 to approve the hikes - the first in eight years. Protesters claimed that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority was balancing its budget on the working poor and minorities who most use the public transit system.

``We will fight it,'' said Cynthia Rojas, an organizer with the Bus Riders Union, which sued the MTA over bus overcrowding. ``It's disappointing. There weren't five votes on the board - five votes - that said, Let's look at alternatives.''

The fare hike for nearly a half-million bus and train riders was included in the agency's fiscal 2003-04 budget, which was also approved by a subsequent 11-1 vote, with Hahn opposed and his appointee Allison Yoh absent.

The agency has cited budget problems - the state's fiscal crisis and rising gas prices and workers' compensation costs - that make a difficult budget year. It's also spending $130 million a year to add buses to comply with the consent decree that resulted from the Bus Riders Union suit.

CEO Roger Snoble repeatedly has said the agency can no longer continue overspending as it has for a decade.

But Hahn said he was unconvinced that the agency needed the $14 million in revenue the fare hike will generate its first year. In subsequent fiscal years, it will bring in an estimated $40 million.

``To me, I don't think the case is as compelling as you try to make it,'' Hahn said.

Staffers have estimated that the MTA would lose about 2 percent of its riders with the new fares, but 4.4 percent if service were cut instead.

In addition to buses, the MTA runs the subway and the Blue and Green rail lines, and will start the Gold Line rail system this year. It also oversees transportation planning countywide and provides funds to cities and Caltrans for road and freeway improvements.

``We can't maintain the current system, we can't grow the system, we can't get to the hundreds of thousands out there who don't even have transit as an option,'' Snoble said.

``The only other choice we have is to get into cutting service. The reality is, we have to keep building the system. The city's going to continue to grow.''

Hahn, Yoh, Hahn appointee Paul Hudson and Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke voted against the fare hike.

``The loss, it's just a tremendous step backward on the system,'' said Yoh, an urban planner. ``It's just taking a chunk of income out of our low-income brackets.''

Bus riders made impassioned pleas - sometimes addressing board members by name - to instead cut the new Gold Line or the San Fernando Valley Metro Rapidway.

They said discontinuing transfers would increase the cost of a two-bus ride from $1.60 to $2.50 - and said the staff's solution of a $3 day pass is unaffordable.

``It takes me three buses and 2 1/2 hours to get from my house in Northridge to Santa Monica College,'' said Tanya Bernard, 20. ``If you raise the fares, get ready for a fight.''

The board initially said there would be no public hearing, having received public testimony at past meetings.

At that, shouting erupted, the board members walked out and the Bus Riders Union members chanted: ``We want our public comment. We want our civil rights.''

After about 30 minutes, the board returned and allowed testimony.

During public comments, longtime MTA watchdog John Walsh showed his opposition by ripping and eating his bus card at the podium.

At another point, middle-school children and their teacher tried to speak out of order, leading the chairman to nearly stop the hearing.

Protester Georgene Acosta, a high school teacher who no longer takes the bus but still opposes the increase, broke into song: ``I've been waiting at the bus stop, all the livelong day.''

However, longtime transit advocate Bart Reed downplayed the protest.

``Everything else has gone up,'' he said. ``There's going to be some benefit and gains to the riding public that actually rides the bus.''

NEW FARES

The MTA board on Thursday approved the following fare changes, effective Jan. 1:

--Basic fare decreases from $1.35 to $1.25.

--Tokens increase from 90 cents to $1.10.

--Monthly pass increases from $42 to $52.

--Semimonthly pass increases from $21 to $27.

--Weekly pass increases from $11 to $14.

--$3 day pass replaces 25-cent transfer.

--Student, senior and disabled passes remain the same.

CAPTION(S):

2 photos, box

Photo:

(1 -- 2) At left, members of the Bus Riders Union wait pensively Thursday for the MTA board to vote on a proposal to raise fares. The decision to go ahead with the hikes drew angry responses, above.

John McCoy/Staff Photographer

Box:

NEW FARES (see text)