The San Francisco Chronicle, covers a new proposal to bring MUNI’s budget into the black. Unfortunately, a large chunk of the money for the bus and rail system would come from people who might never set food on MUNI.

The cost to park in San Francisco - legally or illegally - may be on the rise as city officials scramble for ways to close a projected two-year, $82 million deficit at the agency that runs the Municipal Railway.

The Municipal Transportation Agency’s chief financial officer has outlined in a new report a number of moneymaking options to help balance the budget, including hiking the price of parking fines, parking meter rates and residential parking permits.

The targets for more revenue are increased parking fines, higher meter rates, higher costs of residential parking permits, and an increased cost of a monthly bus pass. While the last of these ideas is sensible, the first three are not connected to the operation of a public transit system.

MUNI’s main cost of operation is from the bus and light rail lines. It would make sense, that the cost would be covered by the riders who actually use this service. The agency should start with a basic evaluation of the budget. If running bus and light rail lines is not fiscally sound, the reason why that part of their operations is failing should be evaluated. Taking money from drivers to fund a public transportation system they don’t use, as opposed to the riders who do use the buses, is a wrong and unsustainable move.

If everyone stopped driving cars in San Francisco tomorrow, which is something many people want, MUNI would still have this deficit.

I am not a transportation expert and I do not know the specifics of the MUNI budget or operations. However, I do see a pattern of ways the city is trying to to make life harder for drivers and take money from drivers to pay for public transportation they don’t use. A year ago I commented on a proposal to tax downtown businesses to fund MUNI more.

If the city can’t make public transportation a financially viable option to driving, without stealing money from drivers, it should not expect everyone to hop on board with them.