Michael Cabanatuan, writing for the SF Chronicle:
Fang said the board should put the extra operating funds toward its employees. BART’s staff suggested it be used for replacing elevator floors rotted by urine, repairing a fire-damaged substation in Richmond, buying more portable radios, stabilizing a slipping hillside along BART tracks and studying improvements at the 16th Street Mission Station.
Split the difference?
On the one hand, I do want workers in the bay area to all earn a decent wage. On the other hand, it doesn’t seem fair to pay some workers so much more than other workers with similar qualifications — and I don’t see a BART station agent earning $80K at any other job with the same qualifications.
Why should getting a job at a state agency be like winning the lottery? Surely not just because they can gridlock the bay area by striking; that’s extortion.