City Hall Steps Rally and MTA Board Meeting
Tuesday, April 15
12 PM: Rally on Polk St. City Hall Steps
1 PM: MTA Board Meeting on Budget, Rm 400

Please come to the noon rally and MTA Board meeting to demand Free MUNI for Seniors and People with Disabilities.  This is the meeting where the MTA Board makes their decision.

Thanks to tremendous work by Senior & Disability Action, the Chinatown Community Development Center, and the Free MUNI for Youth Campaign, who started the whole Free MUNI movement, the MTA Board seems convinced that Free MUNI for low- & middle-income seniors and people with disabilities is a good idea.  This is good.

But the Board is leaning toward making their approval contingent on their suggested revenue measures passing in the November election. (They are proposing a vehicle license fee, a sales tax, and a bond measure.)

Seniors, People with Disabilities, and Youth need Free MUNI regardless of whether these measures pass. With our limited incomes, our rapidly-rising rent, food, and medical costs will be barely affordable, regardless of whether these measures pass. We will still need to go to food stores, to doctors, to community events, and to school, regardless of whether these measures pass.  We cannot afford cars regardless of whether these measures pass.  We deserve to be able to live independently and not need to be in nursing homes, regardless of whether these measures pass.  And we need to be able to go all  the way through high school, regardless of whether these measures pass.

The possibility of your not passing these Free MUNI programs now is particularly disturbing in the light of other factors.  If discounted fares are to be raised, how can you NOT provide free MUNI for low-income groups?  If the overall budget is the problem, why is downtown businesses not being asked to pay for MUNI bringing them their customers and workers?  Why are developers not being asked to pay for MUNI increasing the value of their real estate?  Why are the high-tech companies not being asked to pay the hundreds of millions in taxes they would otherwise owe?  Surely, if the City can afford a free ride to these groups, it can afford a free ride to low-income Seniors, People with Disabilities, and Youth.

Gray Panthers salutes the organizers of the Free MUNI for Youth campaign, and thanks them for their inspiration and help in extending it to other low-income groups.

We need Free MUNI for low-income Seniors, People with Disabilities, and Youth, and we need it now, not November or next year.