City income from preying on motorists? Sorry, that's not public information!

Mayor Breed

In yesterday's post on the city's predatory towing policy, I asked "What's the city's cut? How much does City Hall make on the deal?"

That's not public information. In fact in recent years City Hall has stopped making public even the information they used to provide in the Transportation Fact Sheet,

That's the last one the city published back in 2016, and it contained only 2015 information. 

Even as City Hall wages its goofy, unrelenting campaign against those wicked motor vehicles, motorists have always been a major source of income for the city, but the people of San Francisco are not allowed to know how much that is.

Parking meters brought in $53,738.314 in 2015 (page 9), and parking tickets (page 12) made $88,261,220 that year for the city that hates cars. Note that the city makes a lot more on parking tickets than it does on parking meters.

Its sketchy "operating" budget on the MTA's website says the city is "projected" to make $171 million on Parking & Traffic Fees & Fines this year. That's a lot of money, but it's a lot less than the $219 ("Actuals") million it made from preying on motorists in 2020. Not clear why they made so much from that source in a pandemic year and will make even less this year.

The MTA got $201 million last year from the Biden administration in "Pandemic Relief," and will apparently get more than $316 million more for that in 2021. That's a big chunk of the MTA's more than billion-dollar budget. That's the benefit we get from being represented in Washington forever by Nancy Pelosi and Dianne Feinstein.

One would also like to have updated information on the size of the agency's staff. Does it still have the 7,079 employees it had in 2019? That's an important question, since most of the agency's $1,258,000,000 budget pays for salaries and benefits for its employees.

Unfortunately, journalists at the Chronicle and the Examiner are apparently not interested in these issues. 

Back in 2012, the Chronicle did have an interesting story on red light cameras:

California has the most expensive red-light camera tickets in the world - the fine is so steep that one camera in Oakland generates more than $3 million a year....The state Department of Finance has estimated that red-light cameras bring in more than $80 million annually to the state and $50 million to cities and counties....

Oddly, the story didn't mention San Francisco's take on red light cameras, even a one-camera amount. Did the reporter even ask or was he stonewalled by the city? Was Oakland more forthcoming?

On page 4 of the Transportation Fact Sheet, we learn that in 2015 the city issued 11,851 red light tickets, which must have made millions for the city. Alas, unlike on parking, the city doesn't provide a dollar amount.

In short, the city doesn't want us to know how much it makes from preying on everybody who drives in San Francisco. We only know it's a lot of money.

See also Muni's budget deficit: Waiting for Biden and Sunday meters, parking tickets, and the $500 million bond.