Nearly 150 Bay Area transit workers will keep their jobs into the new year, if the stimulus bill becomes law.
"This is the holiday news we were hoping for all along," said Barbara Pahre, President of the Golden Gate Bridge District’s Board of Directors, as she and her colleagues voted to reverse the layoffs once the bill is signed.
Bus and ferry ridership and toll revenues have dropped off a cliff during the pandemic, so the board voted in November to lay off 146 workers, eliminate 50 open positions and cut administrators’ pay.
"It was the toughest decision that we made in our history as board members. It certainly was for me," said board member Brian Sobel.
The layoffs were set to go into effect on January 4, but with the stimulus bill including nearly $14 billion for transit agencies, that might not be necessary any longer. General Manager and CEO Denis Mulligan said as long as the bill is signed before then, the agency will keep signing paychecks.
"The financial impacts arising from the pandemic have been devastating to the bridge and to our employees," said Pahre. "But as we await the President’s signature on the relief package, I think we can breathe a bigger sigh of relief knowing we’re almost there."
The president has threatened to veto the bill, saying Americans should receive $2,000 in direct payments instead of $600.
But Mulligan expected the bill to go through and it can’t come soon enough.
"It’s a vital lifeline to us in a moment of need. We now see light at the end of the tunnel with vaccines being rolled out and we need to be able to survive and come out the other side."
He said the district has been spending more money than it is bringing in and funding from the earlier stimulus package has already run out.
But even with Bay Area transit agencies expecting nearly $1 billion in relief, that will not be enough to keep the agency going for more than a few months.
'If bridge traffic and the associated toll revenues do not return to normal levels in the coming months, or if there’s not further additional new relief from the federal government, then we will face a financial shortfall when this money runs out and at that juncture we’ll have to consider difficult actions once again," said Mulligan. "But that’s for another day."
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