electronic devices. so the borderespectfully requests they be turned off. minutes for the approval. all in favor, say i. opposed? thank you. item communications directors there will be no anticipated discussion in closed session >> i know eave talked about this regarding the pedestrian and bicycle and repavement work that's on fulton street there's been a lot of before and after just to clarify when i asked for i'd like studio again ask for member content to clarify my requests around the pilot project on polk street it should be brought and the pilot is for l t s-3 or 1 the bicycle level of service and remove level three and four. i want to clarify that request. is eastbound okay with that >> item 7 directors. >> before that folks we're going to be discussing the budget but no vote today on the april 15th but we're anxious to hear from you we're going to rearrange the agenda so director reiskin will begin his report with the recognition part and move public comment to the end of the meeting. we'll do consent calendar the general comment we'll do the consent calendar after director reiskin and get to the budget okay. director reiskin >> good afternoon chair and members of the board and public ear focused around the extraordinary event that the city experienced on the large fire at mission bay there were a lot of folks that responded the police department and fire department were great but a number of sf employees that helped i'd like to ask john haley our director and our code enforcement manage to recognize some of the sfmta employees that were involved in the event. >> good afternoon. >> thank you, mr. chairman and board members it's our great pleasure to be able to introduce people that on the knitted of march 11 to 12 took exiled actions to insure on that morning the norm service particularly in a number of areas directly impacted by fire but it occurred it's important to not that day in and out our ryder's go to their stop and while in most times the vehicle is there were not for the work of the individuals we'll be introducing you to a new a moment someone would have walked out on morning of march first and got no service and be left in the lurk so you'll hear an exiled tail of people who took initiative and demonstrated creativity and essentially saved the transportation rush hour the necklaces day not only for our rogers directly but for anybody coming out of the city. by their dedication and vigilance to rescue trains that were trapped along third street we didn't know where the fire was going but to shuttle people and making a series of phone call and story trains to binge them out so the next morning what the city was faced with from a transportation prospective recovering from a 5 alarm fire not a transportation mess that was created by and it's because of the work of the individuals we'll introduce you to >> oh, okay. sorry about that cameron this effort i'll say was, you know, this term gets throne around with a complete team effort not only were the transit folks but the traffic control officers responded and the security personnel because we had to leave trains in locations but it was really a team effort. i would first introduce it is acceptable for you to get off the wall. this is the transit group. from transit to leadership that insured that both the night of march 11 recovery and set us up for the morning the chief mechanic officer made sure that the trains were not on the wrong side of the city and the folks who ran the trains ann draw andrew's began the process to manage the service and set you tell i us up for the morning and one of our inspectors making the adjustment and ernest the superintendent at grain who lost a nights sleep to get on the phone and direct operators to come into different locations so this is the leadership team that was able to put the plastic bag together both maintain and restore services the night of the fire and on above the board of directors the agency thank you for your outstanding work we appreciate it and so thank you and congratulations (clapping.) good afternoon. good afternoon. thank you. i'd like to say this was really a team effort. that was the leadership but there were many acknowledge behind the scene doing the hard work >> we do appreciate that. thank you, thank you (clapping.) i'd like to piggy back on what carr oil mentioned i'm proud to be work working with the people and i've been here 22 years plan on being here many more. >> glad to hear that (clapping.) >> good afternoon. >> good afternoon. i also would like to congratulate my colleagues be it the inspectors you do not see i was telling wes kind of jokingly this is what we do it is also what we love to be able to do this and have a successful outcome meant the world so thank you very much (clapping.) good afternoon. >> good afternoon. yes. i'd like to echo the same sentiments we seem to rise to the occasion from urban management to the operators. it's a pleasure to work with the organization and i appreciate the opportunity i've risen up there thank you very much (clapping) >> good afternoon chairman nolan and members of the board and director reiskin. i also on behalf of the enforcement team wants to express my thanks and gratitude for the folks this is a real team the sfmta is very close commit team working with john's group the pcos and several other individuals worked closely to help the pd cooperation and clearing the vehicular traffic through the area. the fire we're save and secure. i'd like to call up randy ellis (clapping) and i'd like to identify or name and have them his folks that worked late into the night on that fire so we've got leo be linda, a.d. lad, lift ev'ry voice and sing in existence and curtis and herpes and jessie and james and michael young and benjamin if you'll come up (clapping) >> i can say on behalf of the board of directors thank you for your outstanding work in a critical integer we're very proud of your work. >> thank you (clapping) you want to say anymore. >> it is a total team effort we're proud to be part of the team and the operation of san francisco. >> thank you, mr. jones. >> thank you (clapping) director reiskin. >> so i think we'll safe the balance of the report given the number of people that are here for the budget. >> again ladies and gentlemen, we have two overflow rooms 208 and 16 quietly make sure you give our testimony to the board. >> chairman for the record the advisory committee report will not be given moving on to the consent calendar public may address the commission on matters that are within the commission's jurisdiction and are not on today's agenda decorators no member of the public wants a temp severed. >> i ask that 10 point b be severed. >> so it's severed and you need to recuse you you're on this one. >> on 10.9 so we need to approve the measure. >> all in favor, say i. >> okay. so the consent calendar minus 10.9. >> you can take a motion on 10.9 as well. >> motion to approve the motion. >> all in favor, say i. opposed? >> eaten a the motion to be approved for the item severed. >> all in favor, say i. any further you destruction. all in favor, say i. opposed? and the destruction of the fy for the fines and various rates and charges and possible new revenue sources and no expenditure revenue restriction and the possible capital programs and projects >> director reiskin. >> thank you, mr. chair. we've brought this and we're at the the 9 percent point looking for final guidance and final public feedback so happy to have the opportunity as i think said before we're really at a unique and very great position in time. this would be entering the second cycle fiscal cycle of the strategic plan. we're benefiting from an economic that is strong and much broader support for transportation from muni and, you know, i'll walk you through the presentation that looks different pea very much look forward to the. so if we could go to the overhead. i'll i i want to remind i in terms of the core values of our transportation system if you could advance the slide obviously transit first policy was placed by the voters into the city charter and the agency is us to composers the policy it's not transit only but prioritizing taxis and car sharing the more sustainable modes of transportation we include the green streets looking at accident street as a whole the voters put the transit policies altogether and we'll hear a lot about the social equality and we're the provider for the one hundred percent and in a city where some other costs of hours are rising i think it makes the affordability of the transportation system and its reach to the low income neighborhoods all the more important. so the snapshot of the current budget what it looks like it's a $1.9 billion operating budget and $1.4 billion capital budget it's specific year by year the golds we're undertook through your guidance are existent and high quality service and financial stability and affordable transportation the affordability an increasingly important factor in san francisco. some of the factors we're wrestling with they are benefiting from although some are arguably getting squeezed it's throwing revenue into our operating budget it's a good thing. we have cleveng bargaining agreement our labor contracts are up for negotiation that gives us opportunity given the strength of the economy and the squeeze on affordability certainly the men and women in the organizations that are represented will be seeking increases given the state of our economy. we've discussed a process by charter happens after the budget process so i'll speak to you guess we have now assumed in the budget the same assumptions in the budget analyst report which is a zero percent increase in the first year and the one percent many the second year to the consistent with the joint report. it's not unreasonable to think that the actual outcomes of the negotiation will result in increases and there's the cost of those assumptions like last cycle we'll have to come back in june. the other key factor is the fact that the mayor convened this at the desk last year that come out in november with significant revenue recommendations and this should those revenue measures make to the ballot we've been on stronger foots. so the outcome in terms of the operating budget what we'll e really drives the revenues first of all, are indexing policy and we focus a lot on muni fairs but it's all fines fees and fairs the index is up with imagining inflation which is great policy you enacted in 2345079 which gives us some certainty and sustainability we wouldn't otherwise have it bears repeating it's what's nbd us to get strong credit rating so we stretch our money. so optimistic the local and state revenues come in stronger than expected we get the set side in the budget that represents a quarter of the operating budget so as the economy grows we continue to benefit. on the expense side the 3 things driving the first is the service increases with your support friday morning and the adaptation of the transit effectiveness an increase up to 12 percent in muni service on the street. we're going to try to include as much of that in the budget currently 3 percent in the first year and 7 percent and 3 more to get that's the single biggest change that we're recommending in the operating budget. we do continue to close 80 that strategical gap in the structural engineers that's more tranquilizers and operators and more car cleaners so all the folks that support of the service you made a big step in closing the fiscal gap and we want to continue that. finally there's other resources in the agency we're looking to realign and invest in communications and technology and some of the positions that support of the outreach that we've heard we need to be providing more technology but also looking for areas to reduce expenditures. i think that some of the progress we've made in making the system safer have brought you down the exception in terms of the claims for workman's comp and dollars we're going to pay out so we've been able to accommodate some of the services being able to bring down some of the costs. so in terms of the fairs, fees and fines as i mentioned the great majority proposal index according the inflation what i'm going to be proposing subject to our feedback is a few delineations from the index. one is that we increase the a fast pace the bart pass beyond indexing and that's to account for the increases in costs absorbed with the new fast pass agreement with bart pr they've upping their fares that's a great deal for the people who get the fast past from barhop to glen park through did mission into downtown for just 12 discolors more than the fast pass. we covered the fast pass is among the lowest past cost in the nation so it's a bargain. the one other another deviation would be a slight increase in the visitor pass the 1, 3 and 7 day passes we've got strong demand and when you look at essentially the return on investment you get with the cable car trips their arguably underpriced. in terms of shifting fairs towards from h based discounts to the ability to pay looking at the following we have the free muni for youth program which thanks to google's generous gift that some of you accepted and approved we've got funding for the next 2 years that's fantastic. what i've heard from you during the discussion we've had to date is the desire to extend that program to include 18-years old and seniors and people with disabilities all again with the same low and moderate income criteria. we've also discussed i failed to include on the slide is the compliment would be to reduce the amount of discounts on the balance of folks who currently get the fair so instead of the 65 percent their get a 50 percent so emigrate low and moderate folks pie zero and the higher than moderate pay half fair. as mentioned pretty much everything is indexing. i want to suggest that extending the fairs among a number of other things i'll talk about i'll suggest that we make contingent on a review of the allocations fiscal health halfway through the first fiscal year after the impact of the labor negotiation and the november measures we'll see what happens to the san francisco economic and perhaps require an affirmative action but make sure we feel confident to afford this going forward >> with regard to enrollment there's been discussions thanks to your approval of the parking meter contract we've started the process of upgrading all the metered so all meters in the city will be the smart meter that acceptance credit cards and easier to use and easier to maintain easier for us to remotely gain data and making it easier for people to pay for parking. with regard to enforcement there's a number of options with regard to the improvement heeding the mayors call that we reduce the amount of certifications that people in san francisco have been receiving on sundays so there's a few different things that we've looked at with regards to that. one is completing restoring the course that you took two years ago in terms of establishing the meter improvement on sunday that was done because sunday afternoons had become like saturday afternoons what the vibrant commercial activities yet the commercials were not ben and it's difficult to assess by car that being the goal of the program found it achieved the program and increased the parking availability so we're happy with that. but share the mayors concern that a high number of people were getting parking citations so no enforcement on sunday one idea st. is to completely eliminate it or to regulate or composers only the time limits. you recall we made the time limited all 4 hours on sunday but effectively there will be enforcement between 4 and 6:00 p.m. to get the turnover that comes from time limits. the third option which is what i'd like to recommend is that we significantly redeploy our resources away from the sunday improvement we have higher pressing responsibilities than traffic improvement not change the requirements but really just focus our resources on high priority needs that helps to answer the mayors call of addressing the concerns about sunday parking in prairie the high rate of citations and those have a high revenue impact but given the strength of the mayors resolve and the concerns from the community that pursuing one of the options would be a good faith gesture while preserving the meter. i made reference to that with discussions about market street and the
>> good afternoon ladies and gentlemen, well, to the tuesday, april 1, 2014, board of supervisors and san francisco municipal transportation agency please call roll. >> commissioner singh. director lee. director nolan. director ramos. describing. platform you have a quorum and use of cell phones, pagers and similar sound-producing electronic devices are prohibited at this meeting. please be advised that the chair may order the removal from the meeting room meeting room responsible for the ringing or use of a cell phone, pager, or other similar sound-producing electronic devices. so the border respectfully requests they be turned off. minutes for the approval. all in favor, say i. opposed? thank you. item communications directors there will be no anticipated discussion in closed session >> i know eave talked about this regarding the pedestrian and bicycle and repavement work that's on fulton street there's been a lot of before and after just to clarify when i asked for i'd like studio again ask for member content to clarify my requests around the pilot project on polk street it should be brought and the pilot is for l t s-3 or 1 the bicycle level of service and remove level three and four. i want to clarify that request. is eastbound okay with that >> item 7 directors. >> before that folks we're going to be discussing the budget but no vote today on the april 15th but we're anxious to hear from you we're going to rearrange the agenda so director reiskin will begin his report with the recognition part and move public comment to the end of the meeting. we'll do consent calendar the general comment we'll do the consent calendar after director reiskin and get to the budget okay. director reiskin >> good afternoon chair and members of the board and public ear focused around the extraordinary event that the city experienced on the large fire at mission bay there were a lot of folks that responded the police department and fire department were great but a number of sf employees that helped i'd like to ask john haley our director and our code enforcement manage to recognize some of the sfmta employees that were involved in the event. >> good afternoon. >> thank you, mr. chairman and board members it's our great pleasure to be able to introduce people that on the knitted of march 11 to 12 took exiled actions to insure on that morning the norm service particularly in a number of areas directly impacted by fire but it occurred it's important to not that day in and out our ryder's go to their stop and while in most times the vehicle is there were not for the work of the individuals we'll be introducing you to a new a moment someone would have walked out on morning of march first and got no service and be left in the lurk so you'll hear an exiled tail of people who took initiative and demonstrated creativity and essentially saved the transportation rush hour the necklaces day not only for our rogers directly but for anybody coming out of the city. by their dedication and vigilance to rescue trains that were trapped along third street we didn't know where the fire was going but to shuttle people and making a series of phone call and story trains to binge them out so the next morning what the city was faced with from a transportation prospective recovering from a 5 alarm fire not a transportation mess that was created by and it's because of the work of the individuals we'll introduce you to >> oh, okay. sorry about that cameron this effort i'll say was, you know, this term gets throne around with a complete team effort not only were the transit folks but the traffic control officers responded and the security personnel because we had to leave trains in locations but it was really a team effort. i would first introduce it is acceptable for you to get off the wall. this is the transit group. from transit to leadership that insured that both the night of march 11 recovery and set us up for the morning the chief mechanic officer made sure that the trains were not on the wrong side of the city and the folks who ran the trains ann draw andrew's began the process to manage the service and set you tell i us up for the morning and one of our inspectors making the adjustment and ernest the superintendent at grain who lost a nights sleep to get on the phone and direct operators to come into different locations so this is the leadership team that was able to put the plastic bag together both maintain and restore services the night of the fire and on above the board of directors the agency thank you for your outstanding work we appreciate it and so thank you and congratulations (clapping.) good afternoon. good afternoon. thank you. i'd like to say this was really a team effort. that was the leadership but there were many acknowledge behind the scene doing the hard work >> we do appreciate that. thank you, thank you (clapping.) i'd like to piggy back on what carr oil mentioned i'm proud to be work working with the people and i've been here 22 years plan on being here many more. >> glad to hear that (clapping.) >> good afternoon. >> good afternoon. i also would like to congratulate my colleagues be it the inspectors you do not see i was telling wes kind of jokingly this is what we do it is also what we love to be able to do this and have a successful outcome meant the world so thank you very much (clapping.) good afternoon. >> good afternoon. yes. i'd like to echo the same sentiments we seem to rise to the occasion from urban management to the operators. it's a pleasure to work with the organization and i appreciate the opportunity i've risen up there thank you very much (clapping) >> good afternoon chairman nolan and members of the board and director reiskin. i also on behalf of the enforcement team wants to express my thanks and gratitude for the folks this is a real team the sfmta is very close commit team working with john's group the pcos and several other individuals worked closely to help the pd cooperation and clearing the vehicular traffic through the area. the fire we're save and secure. i'd like to call up randy ellis (clapping) and i'd like to identify or name and have them his folks that worked late into the night on that fire so we've got leo be linda, a.d. lad, lift ev'ry voice and sing in existence and curtis and herpes and jessie and james and michael young and benjamin if you'll come up (clapping) >> i can say on behalf of the board of directors thank you for your outstanding work in a critical integer we're very proud of your work. >> thank you (clapping) you want to say anymore. >> it is a total team effort we're proud to be part of the team and the operation of san francisco. >> thank you, mr. jones. >> thank you (clapping) director reiskin. >> so i think we'll safe the balance of the report given the number of people that are here for the budget. >> again ladies and gentlemen, we have two overflow rooms 208 and 16 quietly make sure you give our testimony to the board. >> chairman for the record the advisory committee report will not be given moving on to the consent calendar public may address the commission on matters that are within the commission's jurisdiction and are not on today's agenda decorators no member of the public wants a temp severed. >> i ask that 10 point b be severed. >> so it's severed and you need to recuse you you're on this one. >> on 10.9 so we need to approve the measure. >> all in favor, say i. >> okay. so the consent calendar minus 10.9. >> you can take a motion on 10.9 as well. >> motion to approve the motion. >> all in favor, say i. opposed? >> eaten a the motion to be approved for the item severed. >> all in favor, say i. any further you destruction. all in favor, say i. opposed? and the destruction of the fy for the fines and various rates and charges and possible new revenue sources and no expenditure revenue restriction and the possible capital programs and projects >> director reiskin. >> thank you, mr. chair. we've brought this and we're at the the 9 percent point looking for final guidance and final public feedback so happy to have the opportunity as i think said before we're really at a unique and very great position in time. this would be entering the second cycle fiscal cycle of the strategic plan. we're benefiting from an economic that is strong and much broader support for transportation from muni and, you know, i'll walk you through the presentation that looks different pea very much look forward to the. so if we could go to the overhead. i'll i i want to remind i in terms of the core values of our transportation system if you could advance the slide obviously transit first policy was placed by the voters into the city charter and the agency is us to composers the policy it's not transit only but prioritizing taxis and car sharing the more sustainable modes of transportation we include the green streets looking at accident street as a whole the voters put the transit policies altogether and we'll hear a lot about the social equality and we're the provider for the one hundred percent and in a city where some other costs of hours are rising i think it makes the affordability of the transportation system and its reach to the low income neighborhoods all the more important. so the snapshot of the current budget what it looks like it's a $1.9 billion operating budget and $1.4 billion capital budget it's specific year by year the golds we're undertook through your guidance are existent and high quality service and financial stability and affordable transportation the affordability an increasingly important factor in san francisco. some of the factors we're wrestling with they are benefiting from although some are arguably getting squeezed it's throwing revenue into our operating budget it's a good thing. we have cleveng bargaining agreement our labor contracts are up for negotiation that gives us opportunity given the strength of the economy and the squeeze on affordability certainly the men and women in the organizations that are represented will be seeking increases given the state of our economy. we've discussed a process by charter happens after the budget process so i'll speak to you guess we have now assumed in the budget the same assumptions in the budget analyst report which is a zero percent increase in the first year and the one percent many the second year to the consistent with the joint report. it's not unreasonable to think that the actual outcomes of the negotiation will result in increases and there's the cost of those assumptions like last cycle we'll have to come back in june. the other key factor is the fact that the mayor convened this at the desk last year that come out in november with significant revenue recommendations and this should those revenue measures make to the ballot we've been on stronger foots. so the outcome in terms of the operating budget what we'll e really drives the revenues first of all, are indexing policy and we focus a lot on muni fairs but it's all fines fees and fairs the index is up with imagining inflation which is great policy you enacted in 2345079 which gives us some certainty and sustainability we wouldn't otherwise have it bears repeating it's what's nbd us to get strong credit rating so we stretch our money. so optimistic the local and state revenues come in stronger than expected we get the set side in the budget that represents a quarter of the operating budget so as the economy grows we continue to benefit. on the expense side the 3 things driving the first is the service increases with your support friday morning and the adaptation of the transit effectiveness an increase up to 12 percent in muni service on the street. we're going to try to include as much of that in the budget currently 3 percent in the first year and 7 percent and 3 more to get that's the single biggest change that we're recommending in the operating budget. we do continue to close 80 that strategical gap in the structural engineers that's more tranquilizers and operators and more car cleaners so all the folks that support of the service you made a big step in closing the fiscal gap and we want to continue that. finally there's other resources in the agency we're looking to realign and invest in communications and technology and some of the positions that support of the outreach that we've heard we need to be providing more technology but also looking for areas to reduce expenditures. i think that some of the progress we've made in making the system safer have brought you down the exception in terms of the claims for workman's comp and dollars we're going to pay out so we've been able to accommodate some of the services being able to bring down some of the costs. so in terms of the fairs, fees and fines as i mentioned the great majority proposal index according the inflation what i'm going to be proposing subject to our feedback is a few delineations from the index. one is that we increase the a fast pace the bart pass beyond indexing and that's to account for the increases in costs absorbed with the new fast pass agreement with bart pr they've upping their fares that's a great deal for the people who get the fast past from barhop to glen park through did mission into downtown for just 12 discolors more than the fast pass. we covered the fast pass is among the lowest past cost in the nation so it's a bargain. the one other another deviation would be a slight increase in the visitor pass the 1, 3 and 7 day passes we've got strong demand and when you look at essentially the return on investment you get with the cable car trips their arguably underpriced. in terms of shifting fairs towards from h based discounts to the ability to pay looking at the following we have the free muni for youth program which thanks to google's generous gift that some of you accepted and approved we've got funding for the next 2 years that's fantastic. what i've heard from you during the discussion we've had to date is the desire to extend that program to include 18-years old and seniors and people with disabilities all again with the same low and moderate income criteria. we've also discussed i failed to include on the slide is the compliment would be to reduce the amount of discounts on the balance of folks who currently get the fair so instead of the 65 percent their get a 50 percent so emigrate low and moderate folks pie zero and the higher than moderate pay half fair. as mentioned pretty much everything is indexing. i want to suggest that extending the fairs among a number of other things i'll talk about i'll suggest that we make contingent on a review of the allocations fiscal health halfway through the first fiscal year after the impact of the labor negotiation and the november measures we'll see what happens to the san francisco economic and perhaps require an affirmative action but make sure we feel confident to afford this going forward >> with regard to enrollment there's been discussions thanks to your approval of the parking meter contract we've started the process of upgrading all the metered so all meters in the city will be the smart meter that acceptance credit cards and easier to use and easier to maintain easier for us to remotely gain data and making it easier for people to pay for parking. with regard to enforcement there's a number of options with regard to the improvement heeding the mayors call that we reduce the amount of certifications that people in san francisco have been receiving on sundays so there's a few different things that we've looked at with regards to that. one is completing restoring the course that you took two years ago in terms of establishing the meter improvement on sunday that was done because sunday afternoons had become like saturday afternoons what the vibrant commercial activities yet the commercials were not ben and it's difficult to assess by car that being the goal of the program found it achieved the program and increased the parking availability so we're happy with that. but share the mayors concern that a high number of people were getting parking citations so no enforcement on sunday one idea st. is to completely eliminate it or to regulate or composers only the time limits. you recall we made the time limited all 4 hours on sunday but effectively there will be enforcement between 4 and 6:00 p.m. to get the turnover that comes from time limits. the third option which is what i'd like to recommend is that we significantly redeploy our resources away from the sunday improvement we have higher pressing responsibilities than traffic improvement not change the requirements but really just focus our resou o
>> thank you. next speaker, please. >> supervising good afternoon. i'm the structural engineer. every step that could have been taken to minimize the size of the driveway has been taken. every per cushion u caution to preserve a maximum open space has been done. my client is suggesting a 10 foot curb cut a telephone foot derivative and a turn arena we're moving in the right direction the open space. including the fact we're proposing in the area that will be fully landscaped and assessable to the neighbors. every step that has been taken in regards to preserving the space has been done tastefully. he's been working on this for reinforces and made nightmares improvements in regards to preserving this green space. i urge you to look at the merits of the design. dpw has approved the design. they went through the structural analysis and the architecture merits and approved that. we went through a hearing and have agencies that reviewed those things we went through all the steps. we specifically want to you analysis the merits of the case. the driveway has been done in a respectful way. and that's the small property owner which will be assessable to all. thank you, supervisors >> we have copies of the presentation by the architect. >> thank you. next speaker. >> hi, i'm teddy live on clare done avenue i've lived there are 4 decades i'm not anti development much aware of the need for housing in the city. however, this proposal will not add any housing to the available housing stock it's only effect will be to enrich one private developer that's not even a resident of the city and i'm affirmatively against the idea of giving as a gift public open space to a private developer. we've surveyed has many of the houses as we could in the 3 hundred photo and a vast majority of them are opposed that is a matter of principle how we use public space in the city. i plead to reject this proposal. thank you. >> is there any public comment on item 4? seeing none, public comment is closed. colleagues item is in the hands of the committee any comments questions for anyone >> i continue ate hard not being involved in the history to not moved with dpw's recommendation so i'll move the motion forward about recommendation. >> i'm sorry a motion. >> with recommendation. >> there's a motion to forward it to the board with positive recommendation. >> cohen. >> you won't be supporting that true i don't know the long history by you represent a part of the town with social implicates are entered and agreements are made and understanding are made. i have been doing a little bit of reach and the testimony harassed been moved by the neighborhoods i came to support the neighbors i'm happy to move forward but not supportive of moving it out of committee with a positive recommendations >> so i'll change my proposal with motion to move forward without a recommendation. >> so okay. so i think that's the best way to proceed it's important to have the computing input from the district supervisor so we'll take that motion without objection. >> i'm concerned i didn't hear from the district supervisor and we reached it out the office and just - >> yeah. >> that will impact our decision. >> madam clerk, any other business before this commission? >> no further business. then we're adjourned. >> san francisco recreation and parks department offers classes for the whole family. rec and parks has a class for everyone. discover what is available now and get ready to get out and play. henri matisse. frida kahlo. andy warhol. discover the next great artist. get out and play and get inspired with toddler classes. experience art where making a mess is part of the process. classes and the size the artistic process rather than the product. children have the freedom to explore materials at their own pace and in their own way. talks love art, especially when they died into the creative process -- dive into the creative process. at the end of the classes, they have cleaned and washup. of.com great way to get out and play. for more information, visit sfrecpark.org. that out and play and get into the groove. rec and parks offers dance classes for seniors. first-time beginners or lifetime enthusiasts -- all are welcome. enjoy all types of music. latins also, country and western. it is a great way to exercise while having lots of fun. seniors learn basic moves and practice a variety of routines. improve your posture, balance, and flexibility. it is easy. get up on your feet and step to the beat. senior dance class is from sf rec and park. a great way to get out and play. >> for more information, >> good afternoon ladies and gentlemen, well, to the tuesday, april 1, 2014, board of supervisors and san francisco municipal transportation agency please call roll. >> commissioner singh. director lee. director nolan. director ramos. describing. platform you have a quorum and use of cell phones, pagers and similar sound-producing electronic devices are prohibited at this meeting. please be advised that the chair may order the removal from the meeting room meeting room responsible for the ringing or use of a cell phone, pager, or other similar sound-producing electronic devices. so the border respectfully requests they be turned off. minutes for the approval. all in favor, say i. opposed? thank you. item communications directors there will be no anticipated discussion in closed session >> i know eave talked about this regarding the pedestrian and bicycle and repavement work that's on fulton street there's been a lot of before and after just to clarify when i asked for i'd like studio again ask for member content to clarify my requests around the pilot project on polk street it should be brought and the pilot is for l t s-3 or 1 the bicycle level of service and remove level three and four. i want to clarify that request. is eastbound okay with that >> item 7 directors. >> before that folks we're going to be discussing the budget but no vote today on the april 15th but we're anxious to hear from you we're going to rearrange the agenda so director reiskin will begin his report with the recognition part and move public comment to the end of the meeting. we'll do consent calendar the general comment we'll do the consent calendar after director reiskin and get to the budget okay. director reiskin >> good afternoon chair and members of the board and public ear focused around the extraordinary event that the city experienced on the large fire at mission bay there were a lot of folks that responded the police department and fire department were great but a number of sf employees that helped i'd like to ask john haley our director and our code enforcement manage to recognize some of the sfmta employees that were involved in the event. >> good afternoon. >> thank you, mr. chairman and board members it's our great pleasure to be able to introduce people that on the knitted of march 11 to 12 took exiled actions to insure on that morning the norm service particularly in a number of areas directly impacted by fire but it occurred it's important to not that day in and out our ryder's go to their stop and while in most times the vehicle is there were not for the work of the individuals we'll be introducing you to a new a moment someone would have walked out on morning of march first and got no service and be left in the lurk so you'll hear an exiled tail of people who took initiative and demonstrated creativity and essentially saved the transportation rush hour the necklaces day not only for our rogers directly but for anybody coming out of the city. by their dedication and vigilance to rescue trains that were trapped along third street we didn't know where the fire was going but to shuttle people and making a series of phone call and story trains to binge them out so the next morning what the city was faced with from a transportation prospective recovering from a 5 alarm fire not a transportation mess that was created by and it's because of the work of the individuals we'll introduce you to >> oh, okay. sorry about that cameron this effort i'll say was, you know, this term gets throne around with a complete team effort not only were the transit folks but the traffic control officers responded and the security personnel because we had to leave trains in locations but it was really a team effort. i would first introduce it is acceptable for you to get off the wall. this is the transit group. from transit to leadership that insured that both the night of march 11 recovery and set us up for the morning the chief mechanic officer made sure that the trains were not on the wrong side of the city and the folks who ran the trains ann draw andrew's began the process to manage the service and set you tell i us up for the morning and one of our inspectors making the adjustment and ernest the superintendent at grain who lost a nights sleep to get on the phone and direct operators to come into different locations so this is the leadership team that was able to put the plastic bag together both maintain and restore services the night of the fire and on above the board of directors the agency thank you for your outstanding work we appreciate it and so thank you and congratulations (clapping.) good afternoon. good afternoon. thank you. i'd like to say this was really a team effort. that was the leadership but there were many acknowledge behind the scene doing the hard work >> we do appreciate that. thank you, thank you (clapping.) i'd like to piggy back on what carr oil mentioned i'm proud to be work working with the people and i've been here 22 years plan on being here many more. >> glad to hear that (clapping.) >> good afternoon. >> good afternoon. i also would like to congratulate my colleagues be it the inspectors you do not see i was telling wes kind of jokingly this is what we do it is also what we love to be able to do this and have a successful outcome meant the world so thank you very much (clapping.) good afternoon. >> good afternoon. yes. i'd like to echo the same sentiments we seem to rise to the occasion from urban management to the operators. it's a pleasure to work with the organization and i appreciate the opportunity i've risen up there thank you very much (clapping) >> good afternoon chairman nolan and members of the board and director reiskin. i also on behalf of the enforcement team wants to express my thanks and gratitude for the folks this is a real team the sfmta is very close commit team working with john's group the pcos and several other individuals worked closely to help the pd cooperation and clearing the vehicular traffic through the area. the fire we're save and secure. i'd like to call up randy ellis (clapping) and i'd like to identify or name and have them his folks that worked late into the night on that fire so we've got leo be linda, a.d. lad, lift ev'ry voice and sing in existence and curtis and herpes and jessie and james and michael young and benjamin if you'll come up (clapping) >> i can say on behalf of the board of directors thank you for your outstanding work in a critical integer we're very proud of your work. >> thank you (clapping) you want to say anymore. >> it is a total team effort we're proud to be part of the team and the operation of san francisco. >> thank you, mr. jones. >> thank you (clapping) director reiskin. >> so i think we'll safe the balance of the report given the number of people that are here for the budget. >> again ladies and gentlemen, we have two overflow rooms 208 and 16 quietly make sure you give our testimony to the board. >> chairman for the record the advisory committee report will not be given moving on to the consent calendar public may address the commission on matters that are within the commission's jurisdiction and are not on today's agenda decorators no member of the public wants a temp severed. >> i ask that 10 point b be severed. >> so it's severed and you need to recuse you you're on this one. >> on 10.9 so we need to approve the measure. >> all in favor, say i. >> okay. so the consent calendar minus 10.9. >> you can take a motion on 10.9 as well. >> motion to approve the motion. >> all in favor, say i. opposed? >> eaten a the motion to be approved for the item severed. >> all in favor, say i. any further you destruction. all in favor, say i. opposed? and the destruction of the fy for the fines and various rates and charges and possible new revenue sources and no expenditure revenue restriction and the possible capital programs and projects >> director reiskin. >> thank you, mr. chair. we've brought this and we're at the the 9 percent point looking for final guidance and final public feedback so happy to have the opportunity as i think said before we're really at a unique and very great position in time. this would be entering the second cycle fiscal cycle of the strategic plan. we're benefiting from an economic that is strong and much broader support for transportation from muni and, you know, i'll walk you through the presentation that looks different pea very much look forward to the. so if we could go to the overhead. i'll i i want to remind i in terms of the core values of our transportation system if you could advance the slide obviously transit first policy was placed by the voters into the city charter and the agency is us to composers the policy it's not transit only but prioritizing taxis and car sharing the more sustainable modes of transportation we include the green streets looking at accident street as a whole the voters put the transit policies altogether and we'll hear a lot about the social equality and we're the provider for the one hundred percent and in a city where some other costs of hours are rising i think it makes the affordability of the transportation system and its reach to the low income neighborhoods all the more important. so the snapshot of the current budget what it looks like it's a $1.9 billion operating budget and $1.4 billion capital budget it's specific year by year the golds we're undertook through your guidance are existent and high quality service and financial stability and affordable transportation the affordability an increasingly important factor in san francisco. some of the factors we're wrestling with they are benefiting from although some are arguably getting squeezed it's throwing revenue into our operating budget it's a good thing. we have cleveng bargaining agreement our labor contracts are up for negotiation that gives us opportunity given the strength of the economy and the squeeze on affordability certainly the men and women in the organizations that are represented will be seeking increases given the state of our economy. we've discussed a process by charter happens after the budget process so i'll speak to you guess we have now assumed in the budget the same assumptions in the budget analyst report which is a zero percent increase in the first year and the one percent many the second year to the consistent with the joint report. it's not unreasonable to think that the actual outcomes of the negotiation will result in increases and there's the cost of those assumptions like last cycle we'll have to come back in june. the other key factor is the fact that the mayor convened this at the desk last year that come out in november with significant revenue recommendations and this should those revenue measures make to the ballot we've been on stronger foots. so the outcome in terms of the operating budget what we'll e really drives the revenues first of all, are indexing policy and we focus a lot on muni fairs but it's all fines fees and fairs the index is up with imagining inflation which is great policy you enacted in 2345079 which gives us some certainty and sustainability we wouldn't otherwise have it bears repeating it's what's nbd us to get strong credit rating so we
>> hi, i'm japanese with the san francisco public utilities combination sometime people call me sewer girl our systems has served the area for 1 hundred and 50 years we're planning you understand public health and our environment don't think that so come in down and see how >> good afternoon ladies and gentlemen, well, to the tuesday, april 1, 2014, board of supervisors and san francisco municipal transportation agency please call roll. >> commissioner singh. director lee. director nolan. director ramos. describing. platform you have a quorum and use of cell phones, pagers and similar sound-producing electronic devices are prohibited at this meeting. please be advised that the chair may order the removal from the meeting room meeting room responsible for the ringing or use of a cell phone, pager, or other similar sound-producing electronic devices. so the border respectfully requests they be turned off. minutes for the approval. all in favor, say i. opposed? thank you. item communications directors there will be no anticipated discussion in closed session >> i know eave talked about this regarding the pedestrian and bicycle and repavement work that's on fulton street there's been a lot of before and after just to clarify when i asked for i'd like studio again ask for member content to clarify my requests around the pilot project on polk street it should be brought and the pilot is for l t s-3 or 1 the bicycle level of service and remove level three and four. i want to clarify that request. is eastbound okay with that >> item 7 directors. >> before that folks we're going to be discussing the budget but no vote today on the april 15th but we're anxious to hear from you we're going to rearrange the agenda so director reiskin will begin his report with the recognition part and move public comment to the end of the meeting. we'll do consent calendar the general comment we'll do the consent calendar after director reiskin and get to the budget okay. director reiskin >> good afternoon chair and members of the board and public ear focused around the extraordinary event that the city experienced on the large fire at mission bay there were a lot of folks that responded the police department and fire department were great but a number of sf employees that helped i'd like to ask john haley our director and our code enforcement manage to recognize some of the sfmta employees that were involved in the event. >> good afternoon. >> thank you, mr. chairman and board members it's our great pleasure to be able to introduce people that on the knitted of march 11 to 12 took exiled actions to insure on that morning the norm service particularly in a number of areas directly impacted by fire but it occurred it's important to not that day in and out our ryder's go to their stop and while in most times the vehicle is there were not for the work of the individuals we'll be introducing you to a new a moment someone would have walked out on morning of march first and got no service and be left in the lurk so you'll hear an exiled tail of people who took initiative and demonstrated creativity and essentially saved the transportation rush hour the necklaces day not only for our rogers directly but for anybody coming out of the city. by their dedication and vigilance to rescue trains that were trapped along third street we didn't know where the fire was going but to shuttle people and making a series of phone call and story trains to binge them out so the next morning what the city was faced with from a transportation prospective recovering from a 5 alarm fire not a transportation mess that was created by and it's because of the work of the individuals we'll introduce you to >> oh, okay. sorry about that cameron this effort i'll say was, you know, this term gets throne around with a complete team effort not only were the transit folks but the traffic control officers responded and the security personnel because we had to leave trains in locations but it was really a team effort. i would first introduce it is acceptable for you to get off the wall. this is the transit group. from transit to leadership that insured that both the night of march 11 recovery and set us up for the morning the chief mechanic officer made sure that the trains were not on the wrong side of the city and the folks who ran the trains ann draw andrew's began the process to manage the service and set you tell i us up for the morning and one of our inspectors making the adjustment and ernest the superintendent at grain who lost a nights sleep to get on the phone and direct operators to come into different locations so this is the leadership team that was able to put the plastic bag together both maintain and restore services the night of the fire and on above the board of directors the agency thank you for your outstanding work we appreciate it and so thank you and congratulations (clapping.) good afternoon. good afternoon. thank you. i'd like to say this was really a team effort. that was the leadership but there were many acknowledge behind the scene doing the hard work >> we do appreciate that. thank you, thank you (clapping.) i'd like to piggy back on what carr oil mentioned i'm proud to be work working with the people and i've been here 22 years plan on being here many more. >> glad to hear that (clapping.) >> good afternoon. >> good afternoon. i also would like to congratulate my colleagues be it the inspectors you do not see i was telling wes kind of jokingly this is what we do it is also what we love to be able to do this and have a successful outcome meant the world so thank you very much (clapping.) good afternoon. >> good afternoon. yes. i'd like to echo the same sentiments we seem to rise to the occasion from urban management to the operators. it's a pleasure to work with the organization and i appreciate the opportunity i've risen up there thank you very much (clapping) >> good afternoon chairman nolan and members of the board and director reiskin. i also on behalf of the enforcement team wants to express my thanks and gratitude for the folks this is a real team the sfmta is very close commit team working with john's group the pcos and several other individuals worked closely to help the pd cooperation and clearing the vehicular traffic through the area. the fire we're save and secure. i'd like to call up randy ellis (clapping) and i'd like to identify or name and have them his folks that worked late into the night on that fire so we've got leo be linda, a.d. lad, lift ev'ry voice and sing in existence and curtis and herpes and jessie and james and michael young and benjamin if you'll come up (clapping) >> i can say on behalf of the board of directors thank you for your outstanding work in a critical integer we're very proud of your work. >> thank you (clapping) you want to say anymore. >> it is a total team effort we're proud to be part of the team and the operation of san francisco. >> thank you, mr. jones. >> thank you (clapping) director reiskin. >> so i think we'll safe the balance of the report given the number of people that are here for the budget. >> again ladies and gentlemen, we have two overflow rooms 208 and 16 quietly make sure you give our testimony to the board. >> chairman for the record the advisory committee report will not be given moving on to the consent calendar public may address the commission on matters that are within the commission's jurisdiction and are not on today's agenda decorators no member of the public wants a temp severed. >> i ask that 10 point b be severed. >> so it's severed and you need to recuse you you're on this one. >> on 10.9 so we need to approve the measure. >> all in favor, say i. >> okay. so the consent calendar minus 10.9. >> you can take a motion on 10.9 as well. >> motion to approve the motion. >> all in favor, say i. opposed? >> eaten a the motion to be approved for the item severed. >> all in favor, say i. any further you destruction. all in favor, say i. opposed? and the destruction of the fy for the fines and various rates and charges and possible new revenue sources and no expenditure revenue restriction and the possible capital programs and projects >> director reiskin. >> thank you, mr. chair. we've brought this and we're at the the 9 percent point looking for final guidance and final public feedback so happy to have the opportunity as i think said before we're really at a unique and very great position in time. this would be entering the second cycle fiscal cycle of the strategic plan. we're benefiting from an economic that is strong and much broader support for transportation from muni and, you know, i'll walk you through the presentation that looks different pea very much look forward to the. so if we could go to the overhead. i'll i i want to remind i in terms of the core values of our transportation system if you could advance the slide obviously transit first policy was placed by the voters into the city charter and the agency is us to composers the policy it's not transit only but prioritizing taxis and car sharing the more sustainable modes of transportation we include the green streets looking at accident street as a whole the voters put the transit policies altogether and we'll hear a lot about the social equality and we're the provider for the one hundred percent and in a city where some other costs of hours are rising i think it makes the affordability of the transportation system and its reach to the low income neighborhoods all the more important. so the snapshot of the current budget what it looks like it's a $1.9 billion operating budget and $1.4 billion capital budget it's specific year by year the golds we're undertook through your guidance are existent and high quality service and financial stability and affordable transportation the affordability an increasingly important factor in san francisco. some of the factors we're wrestling with they are benefiting from although some are arguably getting squeezed it's throwing revenue into our operating budget it's a good thing. we have cleveng bargaining agreement our labor contracts are up for negotiation that gives us opportunity given the strength of the economy and the squeeze on affordability certainly the men and women in the organizations that are represented will be seeking increases given the state of our economy. we've discussed a process by charter happens after the budget process so i'll speak to you guess we have now assumed in the budget the same assumptions in the budget analyst report which is a zero percent increase in the first year and the one percent many the second year to the consistent with the joint report. it's not unreasonable to think that the actual outcomes of the negotiation will result in increases and there's the cost of those assumptions like last cycle we'll have to come back in june. the other key factor is the fact that the mayor convened this at the desk last year that come out in november with significant revenue recommendations and this should those revenue measures make to the ballot we've been on stronger foots. so the outcome in terms of the operating budget what we'll e really drives the revenues first of all, are indexing policy and we focus a lot on muni fairs but it's all fines fees and fairs the index is up with imagining inflation which is great policy you enacted in 2345079 which gives us some certainty and sustainability we wouldn't otherwise have it bears repeating it's what's nbd us to get strong credit rating so we stretch our money. so optimistic the local and state revenues come in stronger than expected we get the set side in the budget that represents a quarter of the operating budget so as the economy grows we continue to benefit. on the expense side the 3 things driving the first is the service increases with your support friday morning and the adaptation of the transit effectiveness an increase up to 12 percent in muni service on the street. we're going to try to include as much of that in the budget currently 3 percent in the first year and 7 percent and 3 more to get that's the single biggest change that we're recommending in the operating budget. we do continue to close 80 that strategical gap in the structural engineers that's more tranquilizers and operators and more car cleaners so all the folks that support of the service you made a big step in closing the fiscal gap and we want to continue that. finally there's other resources in the agency we're looking to realign and invest in communications and technology and some of the positions that support of the outreach that we've heard we need to be providing more technology but also looking for areas to reduce expenditures. i think that some of the progress we've made in making the system safer have brought you down the exception in terms of the claims for workman's comp and dollars we're going to pay out so we've been able to accommodate some of the services being able to bring down some of the costs. so in terms of the fairs, fees and fines as i mentioned the great majority proposal index according the inflation what i'm going to be proposing subject to our feedback is a few delineations from the index. one is that we increase the a fast pace the bart pass beyond indexing and that's to account for the increases in costs absorbed with the new fast pass agreement with bart pr they've upping their fares that's a great deal for the people who get the fast past from barhop to glen park through did mission into downtown for just 12 discolors more than the fast pass. we covered the fast pass is among the lowest past cost in the nation so it's a bargain. the one other another deviation would be a slight increase in the visitor pass the 1, 3 and 7 day passes we've got strong demand and when you look at essentially the return on investment you get with the cable car trips their arguably underpriced. in terms of shifting fairs towards from h based discounts to the ability to pay looking at the following we have the free muni for youth program which thanks to google's generous gift that some of you accepted and approved we've got funding for the next 2 years that's fantastic. what i've heard from you during the discussion we've had to date is the desire to extend that program to include 18-years old and seniors and people with disabilities all again with the same low and moderate income criteria. we've also discussed i failed to include on the slide is the compliment would be to reduce the amount of discounts on the balance of folks who currently get the fair so instead of the 65 percent their get a 50 percent so emigrate low and moderate folks pie zero and the higher than moderate pay half fair. as mentioned pretty much everything is indexing. i want to suggest that extending the fairs among a number of other things i'll talk about i'll suggest that we make contingent on a review of the allocations fiscal health halfway through the first fiscal year after the impact of the labor negotiation and the november measures we'll see what happens to the san francisco economic and perhaps require an affirmative action but make sure we feel confident to afford this going forward >> with regard to enrollment there's been discussions thanks to your approval of the parking meter contract we've started the process of upgrading all the metered so all meters in the city will be the smart meter that acceptance credit cards and easier to use and easier to maintain easier for us to remotely gain data and making it easier for people to pay for parking. with regard to enforcement there's a number of options with regard to the improvement heeding the mayors call that we reduce the amount of certifications that people in san francisco have been receiving on sundays so there's a few different things that we've looked at with regards to that. one is completing restoring the course that you took two years ago in terms of establishing the meter improvement on sunday that was done because sunday afternoons had become like saturday afternoons what the vibrant commercial activities yet the commercials were not ben and it's difficult to assess by car that being the goal of the program found it achieved the program and increased the parking availability so we're happy with that. but share the mayors concern that a high number of people were getting parking citations so no enforcement on sunday one idea st. is to completely eliminate it or to regulate or composers only the time limits. you recall we made the time limited all
municipal transportation agency please call roll. >> commissioner singh. director lee. director nolan. director ramos. describing. platform you have a quorum and use of cell phones, pagers and similar sound-producing electronic devices are prohibited at this meeting. please be advised that the chair may order the removal from the meeting room meeting room responsible for the ringing or use of a cell phone, pager, or other similar sound-producing electronic devices. so the border respectfully requests they be turned off. minutes for the approval. all in favor, say i. opposed? thank you. item communications directors there will be no anticipated discussion in closed session >> i know eave talked about this regarding the pedestrian and bicycle and repavement work that's on fulton street there's been a lot of before and after just to clarify when i asked for i'd like studio again ask for member content to clarify my requests around the pilot project on polk street it should be brought and the pilot is for l t s-3 or 1 the bicycle level of service and remove level three and four. i want to clarify that request. is eastbound okay with that >> item 7 directors. >> before that folks we're going to be discussing the budget but no vote today on the april 15th but we're anxious to hear from you we're going to rearrange the agenda so director reiskin will begin his report with the recognition part and move public comment to the end of the meeting. we'll do consent calendar the general comment we'll do the consent calendar after director reiskin and get to the budget okay. director reiskin >> good afternoon chair and members of the board and public ear focused around the extraordinary event that the city experienced on the large fire at mission bay there were a lot of folks that responded the police department and fire department were great but a number of sf employees that helped i'd like to ask john haley our director and our code enforcement manage to recognize some of the sfmta employees that were involved in the event. >> good afternoon. >> thank you, mr. chairman and board members it's our great pleasure to be able to introduce people that on the knitted of march 11 to 12 took exiled actions to insure on that morning the norm service particularly in a number of areas directly impacted by fire but it occurred it's important to not that day in and out our ryder's go to their stop and while in most times the vehicle is there were not for the work of the individuals we'll be introducing you to a new a moment someone would have walked out on morning of march first and got no service and be left in the lurk so you'll hear an exiled tail of people who took initiative and demonstrated creativity and essentially saved the transportation rush hour the necklaces day not only for our rogers directly but for anybody coming out of the city. by their dedication and vigilance to rescue trains that were trapped along third street we didn't know where the fire was going but to shuttle people and making a series of phone call and story trains to binge them out so the next morning what the city was faced with from a transportation prospective recovering from a 5 alarm fire not a transportation mess that was created by and it's because of the work of the individuals we'll introduce you to >> oh, okay. sorry about that cameron this effort i'll say was, you know, this term gets throne around with a complete team effort not only were the transit folks but the traffic control officers responded and the security personnel because we had to leave trains in locations but it was really a team effort. i would first introduce it is acceptable for you to get off the wall. this is the transit group. from transit to leadership that insured that both the night of march 11 recovery and set us up for the morning the chief mechanic officer made sure that the trains were not on the wrong side of the city and the folks who ran the trains ann draw andrew's began the process to manage the service and set you tell i us up for the morning and one of our inspectors making the adjustment and ernest the superintendent at grain who lost a nights sleep to get on the phone and direct operators to come into different locations so this is the leadership team that was able to put the plastic bag together both maintain and restore services the night of the fire and on above the board of directors the agency thank you for your outstanding work we appreciate it and so thank you and congratulations (clapping.) good afternoon. good afternoon. thank you. i'd like to say this was really a team effort. that was the leadership but there were many acknowledge behind the scene doing the hard work >> we do appreciate that. thank you, thank you (clapping.) i'd like to piggy back on what carr oil mentioned i'm proud to be work working with the people and i've been here 22 years plan on being here many more. >> glad to hear that (clapping.) >> good afternoon. >> good afternoon. i also would like to congratulate my colleagues be it the inspectors you do not see i was telling wes kind of jokingly this is what we do it is also what we love to be able to do this and have a successful outcome meant the world so thank you very much (clapping.) good afternoon. >> good afternoon. yes. i'd like to echo the same sentiments we seem to rise to the occasion from urban management to the operators. it's a pleasure to work with the organization and i appreciate the opportunity i've risen up there thank you very much (clapping) >> good afternoon chairman nolan and members of the board and director reiskin. i also on behalf of the enforcement team wants to express my thanks and gratitude for the folks this is a real team the sfmta is very close commit team working with john's group the pcos and several other individuals worked closely to help the pd cooperation and clearing the vehicular traffic through the area. the fire we're save and secure. i'd like to call up randy ellis (clapping) and i'd like to identify or name and have them his folks that worked late into the night on that fire so we've got leo be linda, a.d. lad, lift ev'ry voice and sing in existence and curtis and herpes and jessie and james and michael young and benjamin if you'll come up (clapping) >> i can say on behalf of the board of directors thank you for your outstanding work in a critical integer we're very proud of your work. >> thank you (clapping) you want to say anymore. >> it is a total team effort we're proud to be part of the team and the operation of san francisco. >> thank you, mr. jones. >> thank you (clapping) director reiskin. >> so i think we'll safe the balance of the report given the number of people that are here for the budget. >> again ladies and gentlemen, we have two overflow rooms 208 and 16 quietly make sure you give our testimony to the board. >> chairman for the record the advisory committee report will not be given moving on to the consent calendar public may address the commission on matters that are within the commission's jurisdiction and are not on today's agenda decorators no member of the public wants a temp severed. >> i ask that 10 point b be severed. >> so it's severed and you need to recuse you you're on this one. >> on 10.9 so we need to approve the measure. >> all in favor, say i. >> okay. so the consent calendar minus 10.9. >> you can take a motion on 10.9 as well. >> motion to approve the motion. >> all in favor, say i. opposed? >> eaten a the motion to be approved for the item severed. >> all in favor, say i. any further you destruction. all in favor, say i. opposed? and the destruction of the fy for the fines and various rates and charges and possible new revenue sources and no expenditure revenue restriction and the possible capital programs and projects >> director reiskin. >> thank you, mr. chair. we've brought this and we're at the the 9 percent point looking for final guidance and final public feedback so happy to have the opportunity as i think said before we're really at a unique and very great position in time. this would be entering the second cycle fiscal cycle of the strategic plan. we're benefiting from an economic that is strong and much broader support for transportation from muni and, you know, i'll walk you through the presentation that looks different pea very much look forward to the. so if we could go to the overhead. i'll i i want to remind i in terms of the core values of our transportation system if you could advance the slide obviously transit first policy was placed by the voters into the city charter and the agency is us to composers the policy it's not transit only but prioritizing taxis and car sharing the more sustainable modes of transportation we include the green streets looking at accident street as a whole the voters put the transit policies altogether and we'll hear a lot about the social equality and we're the provider for the one hundred percent and in a city where some other costs of hours are rising i think it makes the affordability of the transportation system and its reach to the low income neighborhoods all the more important. so the snapshot of the current budget what it looks like it's a $1.9 billion operating budget and $1.4 billion capital budget it's specific year by year the golds we're undertook through your guidance are existent and high quality service and financial stability and affordable transportation the affordability an increasingly important factor in san francisco. some of the factors we're wrestling with they are benefiting from although some are arguably getting squeezed it's throwing revenue into our operating budget it's a good thing. we have cleveng bargaining agreement our labor contracts are up for negotiation that gives us opportunity given the strength of the economy and the squeeze on affordability certainly the men and women in the organizations that are represented will be seeking increases given the state of our economy. we've discussed a process by charter happens after the budget process so i'll speak to you guess we have now assumed in the budget the same assumptions in the budget analyst report which is a zero percent increase in the first year and the one percent many the second year to the consistent with the joint report. it's not unreasonable to think that the actual outcomes of the negotiation will result in increases and there's the cost of those assumptions like last cycle we'll have to come back in june. the other key factor is the fact that the mayor convened this at the desk last year that come out in november with significant revenue recommendations and this should those revenue measures make to the ballot we've been on stronger foots. so the outcome in terms of the operating budget what we'll e really drives the revenues first of all, are indexing policy and we focus a lot on muni fairs but it's all fines fees and fairs the index is up with imagining inflation which is great policy you enacted in 2345079 which gives us some certainty and sustainability we wouldn't otherwise have it bears repeating it's what's nbd us to get strong credit rating so we stretch our money. so optimistic the local and state revenues come in stronger than expected we get the set side in the budget that represents a quarter of the operating budget so as the economy grows we continue to benefit. on the expense side the 3 things driving the first is the service increases with your support friday morning and the adaptation of the transit effectiveness an increase up to 12 percent in muni service on the street. we're going to try to include as much of that in the budget currently 3 percent in the first year and 7 percent and 3 more to get that's the single biggest change that we're recommending in the operating budget. we do continue to close 80 that strategical gap in the structural engineers that's more tranquilizers and operators and more car cleaners so all the folks that support of the service you made a big step in closing the fiscal gap and we want to continue that. finally there's other resources in the agency we're looking to realign and invest in communications and technology and some of the positions that support of the outreach that we've heard we need to be providing more technology but also looking for areas to reduce expenditures. i think that some of the progress we've made in making the system safer have brought you down the exception in terms of the claims for workman's comp and dollars we're going to pay out so we've been able to accommodate some of the services being able to bring down some of the costs. so in terms of the fairs, fees and fines as i mentioned the great majority proposal index according the inflation what i'm going to be proposing subject to our feedback is a few delineations from the index. one is that we increase the a fast pace the bart pass beyond indexing and that's to account for the increases in costs absorbed with the new fast pass agreement with bart pr they've upping their fares that's a great deal for the people who get the fast past from barhop to glen park through did mission into downtown for just 12 discolors more than the fast pass. we covered the fast pass is among the lowest past cost in the nation so it's a bargain. the one other another deviation would be a slight increase in the visitor pass the 1, 3 and 7 day passes we've got strong demand and when you look at essentially the return on investment you get with the cable car trips their arguably underpriced. in terms of shifting fairs towards from h based discounts to the ability to pay looking at the following we have the free muni for youth program which thanks to google's generous gift that some of you accepted and approved we've got funding for the next 2 years that's fantastic. what i've heard from you during the discussion we've had to date is the desire to extend that program to include 18-years old and seniors and people with disabilities all again with the same low and moderate income criteria. we've also discussed i failed to include on the slide is the compliment would be to reduce the amount of discounts on the balance of folks who currently get the fair so instead of the 65 percent their get a 50 percent so emigrate low and moderate folks pie zero and the higher than moderate pay half fair. as mentioned pretty much everything is indexing. i want to suggest that extending the fairs among a number of other things i'll talk about i'll suggest that we make contingent on a review of the allocations fiscal health halfway through the first fiscal year after the impact of the labor negotiation and the november measures we'll see what happens to the san francisco economic and perhaps require an affirmative action but make sure we feel confident to afford this going forward >> with regard to enrollment there's been discussions thanks to your approval of the parking meter contract we've started the process of upgrading all the metered so all meters in the city will be the smart meter that acceptance credit cards and easier to use and easier to maintain easier for us to remotely gain data and making it easier for people to pay for parking. with regard to enforcement there's a number of options with regard to the improvement heeding the mayors call that we reduce the amount of certifications that people in san francisco have been receiving on sundays so there's a few different things that we've looked at with regards to that. one is completing restoring the course that you took two years ago in terms of establishing the meter improvement on sunday that was done because sunday afternoons had become like saturday afternoons what the vibrant commercial activities yet the commercials were not ben and it's difficult to assess by car that being the goal of the program found it achieved the program and increased the parking availability so we're happy with that. but share the mayors concern that a high number of people were getting parking citations so no enforcement on sunday one idea st. is to completely eliminate it or to regulate or composers only the time limits. you recall we made the time limited all 4 hours on sunday but effectively there will be enforcement between 4 and 6:00 p.m. to get the turnover that comes from time limits. the third option which is what i'd like to recommend is that we significantly redeploy our resources away from the sunday improvement we have higher pressing responsibilities than traffic improvement not change the requirements but really just focus our resources on high priority needs that helps to answer the mayors call of addressing the concerns about sunday parking in prairie the
It was opened in 2022 by Randy “Nowakowski” aka Randy Ellis. Nowakowski was the name he gave to his Trenton State Peeps back in the day. Randy Now’s Man Cave previously spent 11 years in Bordentown.
in some way over this last year, all the thousands of you whom i've seen. i'd like to thank the computer executives and the electronics executives in silicon valley, two-thirds of whom are republicans who said they wanted to sign on to a change in america. i'd like to thank the hundreds of executives who came to chicago, a third of them republicans, who said they wanted to change. i'd like to thank the people who've started with mr. perot who've come on to help our campaign. i'd like to thank all the folks around america that no one ever knows about -- the woman that was holding the aids baby she adopted in cedar rapids, iowa who asked me to do something more for adoption; the woman who stopped along the road in wisconsin and wept because her husband had lost his job after 27 years; all the people who are having a tough time and the people who are winning but who know how desperately we need to change. this debate tonight has made crystal clear a challenge that is as old as america -- the choice between hope and fear, change or more of the same, the courage to move into a new tomorrow or to listen to the crowd who says things could be worse. mr. bush has said some very compelling things tonight that don't quite square with the record. he was president for 3 years before he proposed a health care plan that still hasn't been sent to congress in total; three years before an economic plan, and he still didn't say tonight that that tax bill he vetoed raised taxes only on the rich and gave the rest of you a break -- but he vetoed it anyway. i offer a new direction. invest in american jobs, american education, control health care costs, bring this country together again. i want the future of this country to be as bright and brilliant as its past, and it can be if we have the courage to change. [applause] >> president bush, your opposing statement. >> let me tell you a little what it's like to be president. in the oval office, you can't predict what kind of crisis is going to come up. you have to make tough calls. you can't be on one hand this way and one hand another. you can't take different positions on these difficult issues. and then you need a philosophical -- i'd call it a philosophical underpinning. mine for foreign affairs is democracy and freedom, and look at the dramatic changes around the world. the cold war is over. the soviet union is no more and we're working with a democratic country. poland, hungary, czechoslovakia, the baltics are free. take a look at the middle east. we had to stand up against a tyrant. the us came together as we haven't in many, many years. and we kicked this man out of kuwait. and in the process, as a result of that will and that decision and that toughness, we now have ancient enemies talking peace in the middle east. nobody would have dreamed it possible. and i think the biggest dividend of making these tough calls is the fact that we are less afraid of nuclear war. every parent out there has much less worry that their kids are going to be faced with nuclear holocaust. all this is good. on the domestic side, what we must do is have change that empowers people -- not change for the sake of change, tax and spend. we don't need to do that any more. what we need to do is empower people. we need to invest and save. we need to do better in education. we need to do better in job retraining. we need to expand our exports, and they're going very, very well, indeed. and we need to strengthen the american family. i hope as president that i've earned your trust. i've admitted it when i make a mistake, but then i go on and help, try to solve the problems. i hope i've earned your trust because a lot of being president is about trust and character. and i ask for your support for 4 more years to finish this job. thank you very, very much. [applause] >> don't go away yet. i just want to thank the three panelists and thank the three candidates for participating -- president bush, governor clinton and mr. perot. they will appear again together on october the 15th and again on october 19th, and next tuesday there will be a debate among the three candidates for vice president. and for now, from washington university in st. louis, missouri, i'm jim lehrer. thank you, and good night. [applause] c-span [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012] >> monday, an interview with former presidential candidate ross perot. he talks about the status of the economy, the deficit and debt, and how it has changed since his campaigns in 1992 and 1996. here's a portion of that interview. >> you established a third party. he ran twice. you established -- what was it? united we stand and then the reform party. do you think there is something wrong with the two-party system that has gotten, as we have seen, more acrimonious? >> it is almost impossible to do it. it would be a healthy thing if you could get it done and make it happen. they know they are going to be butchered from day one for what they have done. >> "usa today's" richard wolfe talks with ross perot. and to confine his article on monday in "usa today." >> my opponent and his running mate are big believers in top down economics. they basically think that if we spend another $5 trillion on tax cuts that favor the very wealthy -- [audience boos] don't boo. vote. vote. vote. >> he has one new idea. he has one thing he did not do in his first four years, which he says he will do in his next four years, which is raise taxes. does anyone think raising the taxes will help the economy? >> no. >> his plan is to continue as before. the status quo has not worked. we cannot afford four more years of barack obama. we are not going to have four more years of barack obama. >> wednesday, president obama and mitt romney have their first presidential debate. joins the stand for the debate and post-debate coverage. join us live. >> now a debate from the 2000 presidential campaign. vice president al gore was nominated by the democrats and texas gov. george w. bush was the republican choice that your. their first three meetings that -- their thirst -- their first of three meetings that year was held in boston. this is an hour and 45 minutes. >> good evening from the clark athletic center at the university of massachusetts in boston. i'm jim lehrer of the newshour on pbs, and i welcome you to the first of three 90-minute debates between the democratic candidate for president, vice president al gore and the republican candidate, governor george w. bush of texas. the debates are sponsored by the commission on presidential debates and they will be conducted within formats and rules agreed to between the commission and the two campaigns. we'll have the candidates at podiums. no answer to a question can exceed two minutes. rebuttal is limited to one minute. but as moderator i have the option to follow up and to extend any particular give and take another three-and-a-half minutes. even then, no single answer can exceed two minutes. the candidates under their rules may not question each other directly. there will be no opening statements, but each candidate may have up to two minutes for a closing statement. the questions and the subjects were chosen by me alone. i have told no one from the two campaigns, or the commission, or anyone else involved what they are. there is a small audience in the hall tonight. they are not here to participate, only to listen. i have asked, and they have agreed, to remain silent for the next 90 minutes. except for right now, when they will applaud as we welcome the two candidates, governor bush and vice president gore. [applause] >> and now the first question as determined by a flip of a coin, it goes to vice president gore. vice president gore, you have questioned whether governor bush has the experience to be president of the united states. what exactly do you mean? >> well, jim, first of all, i would like to thank the sponsors of this debate and the people of boston for hosting the debate. i would like to thank governor bush for participating, and i would like to say i'm happy to be here with tipper and our family. i have actually not questioned governor bush's experience. i have questioned his proposals. and here is why. i think this is a very important moment for our country. we have achieved extraordinary prosperity. and in this election, america has to make an important choice. will we use our prosperity to enrich not just the few, but all of our families? i believe we have to make the right and responsible choices. if i'm entrusted with the presidency, here are the choices that i will make. i will balance the budget every year. i will pay down the national debt. i will put medicare and social security in a lockbox and protect them. and i will cut taxes for middle- class families. i believe it's important to resist the temptation to squander our surplus. if we make the right choices, we can have a prosperity that endures and enriches all of our people. if i'm entrusted with the presidency, i will help parents and strengthen families because, you know, if we have prosperity that grows and grows, we still won't be successful unless we strengthen families by, for example, ensuring that children can always go to schools that are safe. by giving parents the tools to protect their children against cultural pollution. i will make sure that we invest in our country and our families. and i mean investing in education, health care, the environment, and middle-class tax cuts and retirement security. that is my agenda and that is why i think that it's not just a question of experience. >> governor bush, one minute rebuttal. >> well, we do come from different places. i come from west texas. the governor is the chief executive officer. we know how to set agendas. i think you'll find the difference reflected in our budgets. i want to take one-half of the surplus and dedicate it to social security. one-quarter of the surplus for important projects, and i want to send one-quarter of the surplus back to the people who pay the bills. i want everybody who pays taxes to have their tax rates cut. and that stands in contrast to my worthy opponent's plan, which will increase the size of government dramatically. his plan is three times larger than president clinton's proposed plan eight years ago. it is a plan that will have 200 new programs -- expanded programs and creates 20,000 new bureaucrats. it it empowers washington. tonight you're going to hear that my passion and my vision is to empower americans to be able to make decisions for themselves in their own lives. >> so i take it by your answer, then, mr. vice president, that in an interview recently with the "new york times" when you said that you questioned whether or not governor bush has experience enough to be president, you were talking about strictly policy differences. >> yes, jim. i said that his tax cut plan, for example, raises the question of whether it's the right choice for the country. and let me give you an example of what i mean. under governor bush's tax cut proposal, he would spend more money on tax cuts for the wealthiest 1% than all of the new spending that he proposes for education, health care, prescription drugs and national defense all combined. now, i think those are the wrong priorities. now, under my proposal, for every dollar that i propose in spending for things like education and health care, i will put another dollar into middle class tax cuts. and for every dollar that i spend in those two categories, i'll put $2 toward paying down the national debt. i think it's very important to keep the debt going down and completely eliminate it. and i also think it's very important to go to the next stage of welfare reform. our country has cut the welfare rolls in half. i fought hard from my days in the senate and as vice president to cut the welfare rolls and we've moved millions of people in america into good jobs. but it's now time for the next stage of welfare reform, and include fathers and not only mothers. >> we're going to get a lot of those. >> let me just say that obviously tonight we're going to hear some phony numbers about what i think and what we ought to do. people need to know that over the next ten years it is going to be $25 trillion of revenue that comes into our treasurey and we anticipate spending $21 trillion. and my plan say why don't we pass 1.3 trillion of that back to the people who pay the bills? surely we can afford 5% of the $25 trillion that are coming into the treasury to the hard working people that pay the bills. there is a difference of opinion. my opponent thinks the government -- the surplus is the government's money. that's not what i think. i think it's the hard-working people of america's money and i want to share some of that money with you so you have more money to build and save and dream for your families. it's a difference of opinion. it's a difference between government making decisions for you and you getting more of your money to make decisions for yourself. >> let me just follow up one quick question. when you hear vice president gore question your experience, do you read it the same way, that he's talking about policy differences only? >> yes. i take him for his word. look, i fully recognize i'm not of washington. i'm from texas. and he's got a lot of experience, but so do i. and i've been the chief executive officer of the second biggest state in the union. i have a proud record of working with both republicans and democrats, which is what our nation needs. somebody that can come to washington and say let's forget all the finger pointing and get positive things done on medicare, prescription drugs, social security, and so i take him for his word. >> jim, if i could just respond. i know that. the governor used the phrase phony numbers, but if you look at the plan and add the numbers up, these numbers are correct. he spends more money for tax cuts for the wealthiest 1% than all of his new spending proposals for health care, prescription drugs, education and national defense all combined. i agree that the surplus is the american people's money, it's your money. that's why i don't think we should give nearly half of it to the wealthiest 1%, because the other 99% have had an awful lot to do with building the surplus in our prosperity. >> three-and-a-half minutes is up. new question. >> i hope it's about wealthy people. >> governor bush, you have a question. this is a companion question to the question i asked vice president gore. you have questioned whether vice president gore has demonstrated the leadership qualities necessary to be president of the united states. what do you mean by that? >> actually what i've said, jim. i've said that eight years ago they campaigned on prescription drugs for seniors. and four years ago they campaigned on getting prescription drugs for seniors. and now they're campaigning on getting prescription drugs for seniors. it seems like they can't get it done. now, they may blame other folks, but it's time to get somebody in washington who is going to work with both republicans and democrats to get some positive things done when it comes to our seniors. and so what i've said is that there's been some missed opportunities. they've had a chance. they've had a chance to form consensus. i've got a plan on medicare, for example, that's a two-stage plan that says we'll have immediate help for seniors and what i call immediate helping hand, a $48 billion program. but i also want to say to seniors, if you're happy with medicare the way it is, fine, you can stay in the program. but we're going to give you additional choices like they give federal employees in the federal employee health plan. they have a variety of choices to choose, so should seniors. and my point has been, as opposed to politicizing an issue like medicare, in other words, holding it up as an issue, hoping somebody bites it and try to clobber them over the head with it for political purposes, this year, in the year 2000, it's time to get it done once and for all. that's what i've been critical about the administration for. same with social security. i think there was a good opportunity to bring republicans and democrats together to reform the social security system so seniors will never go without. those on social security today will have their promise made, but also to give younger workers the option at their choice of being able to manage some of their own money in the private sector to make sure there's a social security system around tomorrow. there are a lot of young workers at our rallies we go to that when they hear i'll trust them at their option to be able to manage, under certain guidelines, some of their own money to get a better rate of return so that they'll have a retirement plan in the future, they begin to nod their heads and they want a different attitude in washington. >> one minute rebuttal. >> well, jim, under my plan all seniors will get prescription drugs under medicare. the governor has described medicare as a government hmo. it's not, and let me explain the difference. under the medicare prescription drug proposal i'm making, here is how it works, you go to your own doctor. your doctor chooses your prescription. no hmo or insurance company can take those choices away from you. then you go to your own pharmacy. you fill the prescription and medicare pays half the cost. if you're in a very poor family or if you have very high costs, medicare will pay all the costs, a $25 premium, and much better benefits than you can possibly find in the private sector. now here is the contrast. 95% of all seniors would get no help whatsoever under my opponent's plan for the first four or five years. now, one thing i don't understand, jim, is why is it that the wealthiest 1% get their tax cuts the first year, but 95% of seniors have to wait four to five years before they get a single penny? >> i guess my answer to that is the man is running on medi- scare. trying to frighten people in the voting booth. it's just not the way i think and it's not my intentions and not my plan. i want all seniors to have prescription drugs in medicare. we need to reform medicare. there's been opportunity to do so but this administration has failed to do it. and so seniors will have not only a medicare plan where the poor seniors will have prescription drugs paid for, but there will be a variety of options. the current system today has meant a lot for a lot of seniors, and i really appreciate the intentions of the current system as i mentioned. if you're happy with the system you can stay in it. but there are a lot of procedures that haven't kept up in medicare with the current times. no prescription drug benefits, no drug therapy, no preventative medicines, no vision care. we need to have a modern system to help seniors, and the idea of supporting a federally controlled 132,000-page document bureaucracy as being a compassionate way for seniors, and the only compassionate source of care for seniors is not my vision. i believe we ought to give seniors more options. i believe we ought to make the system work better. i know this. i know it will require a different kind of leader to go to washington to say to both republicans and democrats, let's come together. you've had your chance, vice president, you've been there for eight years and nothing has been done. my point is, is that my plan not only trusts seniors with options, my plan sets aside $3.4 trillion for medicare over the next ten years. my plan also says it requires a new approach in washington, d.c. it's going to require somebody who can work across the partisan divide. >> if i could respond to that. under my plan i will put medicare in an iron clad lockbox and prevent the money from being used for anything other than medicare. the governor has declined to endorse that idea even though the republican as well as democratic leaders in congress have endorsed it. i would be interested to see if he would say this evening he'll put medicare in a lockbox. i don't think he will because under his plan if you work out the numbers $100 billion comes out of medicare just for the wealthiest 1% in the tax cut. now here is the difference. some people who say the word reform actually mean cuts. under the governor's plan, if you kept the same fee for service that you have now under medicare, your premiums would go up by between 18% and 47%, and that is the study of the congressional plan that he's modeled his proposal on by the medicare actuaries. let me give you one quick example. there is a man here tonight named george mckinney from milwaukee. he's 70 years old, has high blood pressure, his wife has heart trouble. they have an income of $25,000 a year. they can't pay for their prescription drugs and so they're some of the ones that go to canada regularly in order to get their prescription drugs. under my plan, half of their costs would be paid right away. under governor bush's plan, they would get not one penny for four to five years and then they would be forced to go into an hmo or to an insurance company and ask them for coverage, but there would be no limit on the premiums or the deductibles or any of the terms and conditions. >> i cannot let this go by, the old-style washington politics, of we're going to scare you in the voting booth. under my plan the man gets immediate help with prescription drugs. it's called immediate helping hand. instead of squabbling and finger pointing, he gets immediate help. let me say something. >> your -- [cross talk] >> can i make another point? they get $25,000 a year income, that makes them ineligible. >> look, this is a man who has great numbers. he talks about numbers. i'm beginning to think not only did he invent the internet, but he invented the calculator. [laughter] it's fuzzy math. it's a scaring -- he's trying to scare people in the voting booth. under my tax plan that he continues to criticize, i set one-third. the federal government should take no more than a third of anybody's check. but i also dropped the bottom rate from 15% to 10%. because by far the vast majority of the help goes to people at the bottom end of the economic ladder. if you're a family of four in massachusetts, making $50,000, you get a 50% cut in the federal income taxes you pay. it's from $4000 to about $2000. now, the difference in our plans is i want that $2,000 to go to you, and the vice president would like to be spending the $2,000 on your behalf. >> one quick thing, gentlemen. these are your rules. i'm doing my best. we're way over the three and a half minutes. i have no problems with it. do you want to have a quick response? we're almost to five minutes on this. >> it's just clear you can go to the website and look. if you make more than $25,000 a year you don't get a penny of help under the bush prescription drug proposal for at least four to five years, and then you're pushed into a medicare -- into an hmo or insurance company plan, and there's no limit on the premiums or the deductibles or any of the conditions. and the insurance companies say it won't work and they won't offer these plans. >> let me ask you both this and we'll move on on the subject. as a practical matter, both of you want to bring prescription drugs to seniors, correct? >> correct. >> correct. >> the difference is i want to bring it to 100% and he wants to bring it to 5%. >> that's totally false for him to stand up here and say that. let me make sure the seniors hear me loud and clear. they have had their chance to get something done. i'm going to work with democrats and republicans to reform the system. all seniors will be covered, all poor seniors will have their prescription drugs paid for, and in the meantime, we'll have a plan to help poor seniors and in the meantime it could be one year or two years. >> let me call your attention to the key word there. he said all poor seniors. >> wait a minute. all seniors are covered under prescription drugs in my plan. >> in the first year? >> if we can get it done in the first year, you bet. yours is phased in in eight years. >> it's a two-phase plan. for the first four years -- it takes a year to pass it and for the first four years only the poor are covered. middle class seniors like george mckinney and his wife are not covered for four to five years. >> i have an idea. if you have any more to say about this, you can say it in your closing statements and we'll move on, okay? new question. vice president gore. how would you contrast your approach to preventing future oil price and supply problems like we have now to the approach of governor bush? >> excellent question. and here is the simple difference. my plan has not only a short- term component, but also a long-term component. and it focuses not only on increasing the supply, which i think we have to do, but also on working on the consumption side. now, in the short-term we have to free ourselves from the domination of the big oil companies that have the ability to manipulate the price from opec when they want to raise the price. and in the long-term we have to give new incentives for the development of domestic resources like deep gas in the western gulf, like stripper wells for oil, but also renewable sources of energy. and domestic sources that are cleaner and better. and i'm proposing a plan that will give tax credits and tax incentives for the rapid development of new kinds of cars and trucks and buses and factories and boilers and furnaces that don't have as much pollution, that don't burn as much energy, and that help us get out on the cutting edge of the new technologies that will create millions of new jobs. because, when we sell these new products here, we'll then be able to sell them overseas. there is a ravenous demand for them overseas. now, another big difference is governor bush is proposing to open up some of our most precious environmental treasures, like the arctic national wildlife refuge for the big oil companies to go in and start producing oil there. i think that is the wrong choice. it would only give us a few months' worth of oil and the oil wouldn't start flowing for many years into the future. i don't think it's a fair price to pay to destroy precious parts of america's environment. we have to bet on the future and move beyond the current technologies to have a whole new generation of more efficient, cleaner, energy technology. >> it's an issue i know a lot about. i was a small oil person for a while in west texas. this is an administration that's had no plan. and all of a sudden the results of having no plan have caught up with america. first and foremost we have to fully fund liheap which is a way to help low income folks, particularly here in the east to pay for high fuel bills. secondly, we need an active exploration program in america. the only way to become less dependent on foreign sources of crude oil is to explore at home. you bet i want to open up a small part of alaska. when that field is online it will produce one million barrels a day. today we import one million barrels from saddam hussein. i would rather that a million come from our own hemisphere, our own country as opposed i want to build more pipelines to have more natural gas truck this hemisphere. i want to develop the coal resources in america and have the clean coal technology. we have an abundance of supply in america. we better get after it and start exploring, otherwise we will be dependent on foreign sources of crude. >> if someone is watching tonight and listening to what the two of you are saying, the differences between vice president gore and present and bush, you are doing something on production -- it >> i am doing something both on the supply side and the production side and on the consumption side. let me say that i found one thing in his answer that we certainly agree upon. that is the low income assistance program. i commend you for supporting that it. i want to establish a permanent or early hitting reserve in the northeast. as for the proposal that i have worked for four grenoble's and conservation and efficiency in the new technologies, over the last two years in congress, we did a lot of opposition. the only approved about 10% of the agenda that i have helped send the. we need to get serious about this energy crisis, both in the congress and in the white house. if you can trust me with the presidency, i will tackle this problem and focus on new technology that will make us less dependent on big oil or for oil. >> how would you draw the difference? >> all i would say that he should have been tackling it for the last seven years. the vice president does not believe in that in alaska. there is an interesting issue and the northwest as well. and that is a question of whether to removing dams in the northwest. i am against that. that is a renewable source of energy we need to keep in line. i went to school country yesterday. there was abundant supply of coal in america. i know we can do a better job of coal clean energy. i will ask congress for $2 billion to make sure we have the cleanest coal technologies in the world. my answer to you is that in the short term, we need to explore our resources and we need to develop our reservoirs' of domestic production. we need to have to have as their policies were canada and mexico and the united states come together. i brought this up recently with vincent fox, the newly elected president in mexico. he is a man i know from mexico. i talked about that exploration of natural gas in mexico and transported of to the united states of them become less dependent on the foreign sources of crude oil. this is a major problem facing america. the administration did not deal with it. it's time for a new administration to deal with the energy problem. >> if i may just briefly, note. i found a couple of other things we agree upon. we cannot find that many this evening, so i wanted to emphasize. i strongly support investments in clean coal energy -- technology. we do not have to do that. that is the wrong choice. it is not the right thing. >> it is the right thing for the consumers. less dependency upon foreign sources of crude is good for consumers. we can do so in an environmentally, with. >> can i have the last word on this. >> and a question, a new subject. governor bush. if elected president, would you try to overturn the fda's approval last abortion pill ru- 486? >> i do not the president can do that. i think abortion should be more rare in america. i am afraid the bill would create more abortions and cause more people to have abortions. this is a very important topic and it is a very sensitive topic. i think what the next president ought to do is promote a cultural life in america. a life of delegates and a lot of those living all across the country in light of the unborn. i think a noble goal for this country is that every child born and unborn should be protected by the law and welcomed into life. there in america. find good common ground on america. issues of parental consent or birth abortions. this is a place where my opponent and i have strong disagreement. i believe banning partial birth abortions would be a positive step to reducing the number of abortions in america. this is an issue that will require a new attitude. we've been battling over abortion for a long period of time. surely this nation can come together to promote the value of life. surely we can fight off these laws that will encourage doctors to -- to allow doctors to take the lives of our seniors. surely we can work together to create a cultural life so some of these youngsters who feel like they can take a neighbor's life with a gun will understand that that's not the way america is meant to be. surely we can find common ground to reduce the number of abortions in america. as to the drug itself, i mentioned i was disappointed. i hope the fda took its time to make sure that american women will be safe who use this drug. >> vice president gore? >> well, jim, the fda took 12 years, and i do support that decision. they determined it was medically safe for the women who use that drug. this is indeed a very important issue. first of all on the issue of partial birth or so-called late-term abortion, i would sign a law banning that procedure, provided that doctors have the ability to save a woman's life or to act if her health is severely at risk. that's not the main issue. the main issue is whether or not the roe vs. wade decision is going to be overturned. i support a woman's right to choose. my opponent does not. it is important because the next president is going to appoint three and maybe even four justices of the supreme court. and governor bush has declared to the anti-choice groups that he will appoint justices in the mold of scalia and clarence thomas, who are known for being the most vigorous opponents of a woman's right to choose. here is the difference. he trusts the government to order a woman to do what it thinks she ought to do. i trust women to make the decisions that affect their lives, their destinies and their bodies. supreme court question in a moment, but make sure i486. if you're elected president, not through appointments to the fda, you won't support legislation to overturn this? >> i don't think a president can unilaterally overturn it. the fda has made its decision. >> that means you wouldn't, through appointments, to the fda women. if i heard you correctly, was would he support legislation to overturn it. and if i heard the statement day before yesterday, you said you would order -- he said he would order his fda appointee to review the decision. now that sounds to me a little bit different. i just think that we ought support the decision. >> i said i would make sure that women would be safe who used the drug. >> on the supreme court question. should a voter assume -- you're pro-life. >> i am pro-life. >> should a voter assume that all judicial appointments you make to the supreme court or any other court, federal court, will also be pro-life? >> the voters should assume i have no litmus test on that issue or any other issue. voters will know i'll put competent judges on the bench. people who will strictly interpret the constitution and not use the bench to write social policy. that is going to be a big difference between my opponent and me. legislative branch ofthat they're appointed for life and that they ought to look at the constitution as sacred. they shouldn't misuse their bench. i don't believe in liberal activist judges. i believe in strict constructionists. those are the kind of judges i will appoint. i've named four supreme court justices in the state of texas and would ask the people to check out their qualifications, their deliberations. they're good, solid men and women who have made good, sound judgments on behalf of the people of texas. >> what kind of appointments should they expect from you? >> we both use similar language to reach an exactly opposite outcome. i don't favor a litmus test, but i know that there are ways to assess how a potential justice interprets the constitution. and in my view, the constitution ought to be interpreted as a document that grows with our country and our history. and i believe, for example, that there is a right of privacy in the fourth amendment. and when the phrase a strict constructionist is used and when the names of scalia and thomas are used as the benchmarks for who would be appointed, those are code words, and nobody should mistake this, for saying the governor would appoint people who would overturn roe vs. wade. it's very clear to me. i would appoint people that have a philosophy that i think would have it quite likely they would uphold roe vs. wade. >> is the vice president right? is that a code word for overturning roe vs. wade? >> it sounds like the vice president's not right very many times tonight. i just told you the criteria on which i'll appoint judges. i have a record of appointing judges in the state of texas. that's what a governor gets to do. a governor gets to name supreme court judges. he also reads all kinds of things into my tax plan and into my medicare plan. i want the viewers out there to listen to what i have to say about it. >> reverse the question. what code phrases should we read by what you said about what kind of people you would appoint? >> it would be likely that they would uphold roe vs. wade. i do believe it's wrong to use a litmus test. if you look at the history of a lower court judge's rulings, you can get a pretty good idea of how they'll interpret questions. a lot of questions are first impression, and these questions that have been seen many times come up in a new context and so -- but, you know, this is a very important issue. because a lot of young women in this country take this right for granted and it could be lost. it is on the ballot in this election, make no mistake about it. >> i'll tell you what kind of judges he'll put on. he'll put liberal activists justices who will use their bench to subvert the legislature, that's what he'll do. >> that's not right. >> new subject, new question. vice president gore, if president milosevic of yugoslavia refuses to accept the election results and leave office, what action, if any, should the united states take to get him out of there? >> well, milosevic has lost the election. his opponent, kostunica, has won the election. it's overwhelming. milosevic's government refuses to release the vote count. there's now a general strike going on. they're demonstrating. i think we should support the people of serbia and yugoslavia, as they call the serbia plus montenegro, and put pressure in every way possible to recognize the lawful outcome of the election. the people of serbia have acted very bravely in kicking this guy out of office. now he is trying to not release the votes and then go straight to a so-called runoff election without even announcing the results of the first vote. alonge've made it clear, with our allies, that when milosevic leaves, then serbia will be able to have a more normal relationship with the rest of the world. that is a very strong incentive that we've given them to do the right thing. bear in mind also, milosevic has been indicted as a war criminal and he should be held accountable for his actions. now, we have to take measured steps because the sentiment within serbia is, for understandable reasons, against the united states because their nationalism -- even if they don't like milosevic, they still have some feelings lingering from the nato action there. so we have to be intelligent in the way we go about it. but make no mistake about it, we should do everything we can to see that the will of the serbian people expressed in this extraordinary election is done. and i hope that he'll be out of office very shortly. >> governor bush, one minute. >> well, i'm pleased with the results of the election. as the vice president is. it's time for the man to go. it means that the united states must have a strong diplomatic hand with our friends in nato. that's why it's important to make sure our alliances are as strong as they possibly can be to keep the pressure on mr. milosevic. but this will be an interesting moment for the russians to step up and lead as well. be a wonderful time for the russians to step into the balkans and convince mr. milosevic that it's in his best interest and his country's best interest to leave office. the russians have a lot of sway in that part of the world. we would like to see the russians use that sway to encourage democracy to take hold. it's an encouraging election. it's time for the man to leave. >> what if he doesn't leave? what if all the diplomatic efforts, all the pressure from all over the world and he still doesn't go? is this the kind of thing, to be specific, that you as president would consider the use of u.s. military force to get him gone? >> in this particular situation, no. bear in mind that we have a lot of sanctions in force against serbia right now. and the people of serbia know that they can escape all those sanctions if this guy is turned out of power. now, i understand what the governor has said about asking the russians to be involved, and under some circumstances that might be a good idea. but being as they have not yet been willing to recognize kostunica as the lawful winner of the election, i'm not sure it's right for us to invite the president of russia to mediate this -- this dispute there because we might not like the results that comes out of that. they currently favor going forward with a runoff election. i think that's the wrong thing. i think the governor's instinct is not necessarily bad because we have worked with the russians in a constructive way in kosovo, for example, to end the conflict there. but i think we need to be very careful in the present situation before we invite the russians to play the lead role in mediating. >> well obviously we wouldn't use the russians if they didn't agree with our answer, mr. vice president. >> they don't. >> let me say this to you, i wouldn't use force. i wouldn't use force. >> you wouldn't use force? >> no. >> why not? >> it's not in our national interest to use force in this case. i would use pressure and diplomacy. there is a difference with what the president did in kosovo which i supported and this. it's up to the people in this region to take control of their country. >> new question. how would you go about as president deciding when it was in the national interest to use u.s. force, generally? >> well, if it's in our vital national interests, and that means whether our territory is threatened or people could be harmed, whether or not the alliances are -- our defense alliances are threatened, whether or not our friends in the middle east are threatened. that would be a time to seriously consider the use of force. secondly, whether or not the mission was clear. whether or not it was a clear understanding as to what the mission would be. thirdly, whether or not we were prepared and trained to win. whether or not our forces were of high morale and high standing and well-equipped. and finally, whether or not there was an exit strategy. i would take the use of force very seriously. i would be guarded in my approach. i don't think we can be all things to all people in the world. i think we've got to be very careful when we commit our troops. the vice president and i have a disagreement about the use of troops. he believes in nation building. i would be very careful about using our troops as nation builders. i believe the role of the military is to fight and win war and therefore prevent war from happening in the first place. so i would take my responsibility seriously. and it starts with making sure we rebuild our military power. morale in today's military is too low. we're having trouble meeting recruiting goals. we met the goals this year, but in the previous years we have not met recruiting goals. some of our troops are not well- equipped. inelieve we're overextended too many places. and therefore i want to rebuild the military power. it starts with a billion dollar pay raise for the men and women who wear the uniform. a billion dollars more than the president recently signed into law. it's to make sure our troops are well-housed and well-equipped. bonus plans to keep some of our high-skilled folks in the services and a commander in chief who clearly sets the mission. the mission is to fight and win war and therefore prevent war from happening in the first place. >> vice president gore, one minute. >> let me tell you what i'll do. first of all i want to make it clear, our military is the strongest, best-trained, best- equipped, best-led fighting force in the world and in the history of the world. nobody should have any doubt about that, least of all our adversaries or potential adversaries. if you entrust me with the presidency, i will do whatever is necessary in order to make sure our forces stay the strongest in the world. in fact, in my ten-year budget proposal i've set aside more than twice as much for this purpose as governor bush has in his proposal. now, i think we should be reluctant to get involved in someplace in a foreign country. but if our national security is at stake, if we have allies, if we've tried every other course, if we're sure military action will succeed, and if the costs are proportionate to the benefits, we should get involved. now, just because we don't want to get involved everywhere doesn't mean we should back off anywhere it comes up. i disagree with the proposal that maybe only when oil supplies are at stake that our national security is at risk. i think that there are situations like in bosnia or kosovo where there's a genocide, where our national security is at stake there. >> i agree our military is the strongest in the world today, that's not the question. the question is will it be the strongest in the years to come? the warning signs are real. everywhere i go on the campaign trail i see moms and dads whose son or daughter may wear the uniform and they tell me about how discouraged their son or daughter may be. a recent poll was taken among 1,000 enlisted personnel, as well as officers, over half of whom will leave the service when their time of enlistment is up. the captains are leaving the service. there is a problem. and it's going to require a new commander in chief to rebuild the military power. the other day i was honored to be flanked by colin powell and general norman schwartzkopf recently stood by me side and agreed with me. they said even if we are the strongest if we don't do something if we don't have a clear vision of the military, if we don't stop extending our troops all around the world and nation building missions, then we're going to have a serious problem coming down the road, and i'm going to prevent that. i'm going to rebuild our military power. it's one of the major priorities of my administration. >> vice president gore, how should the voters go about deciding which one of you is better suited to make the kinds of decisions, whether it's milosevic or whatever, in the military and foreign policy area? >> well, they should look at our proposals and look at us as people and make up their own minds. when i was a young man, i volunteered for the army. i served my country in vietnam. my father was a senator who strongly opposed the vietnam war. i went to college in this great city, and most of my peers felt against the war as i did. but i went anyway because i knew if i didn't, somebody else in the small town of carthage, tennessee, would have to go in my place. i served for eight years in the house of representatives and i served on the intelligence committee, specialized in looking at arms control. i served for eight years in the united states senate and served on the armed services committee. for the last eight years i've served on the national security council, and when the conflict came up in bosnia, i saw a genocide in the heart of europe with the most violent war on the continent of europe since world war ii. look, that's where world war i started in the balkans. my uncle was a victim of poisonous gas there. millions of americans saw the results of that conflict. we have to be willing to make good, sound judgments. incidentally, i know the value of making sure our troops have the latest technology. the governor has proposed skipping the next generation of weapons. i think that's a big mistake, because i think we have to stay at the cutting edge. >> governor, how would you advise the voters to make the decision on this issue? >> i think you've got to look at how one has handled responsibility in office. whether or not it's -- the same in domestic policy as well. whether or not you have the capacity to convince people to follow? whether or not one makes decisions based on sound principles or whether or not you rely upon polls and focus groups on how to decide what the course of action is. we have too much polling and focus groups going on in washington today. we need decisions made on sound principles. i've been the governor of a big state. i think one of the hallmarks of my relationship in austin, texas, is that i've had the capacity to work with both republicans and democrats. i think that's an important part of leadership. i think what it means to build consensus. i've shown i know how to do so. tonight in the audience there's one elected state senator who is a democrat, a former state- wide officer who is a democrat, a lot of democrats who are here in the debate to -- because they want to show their support that shows i know how to lead. and so the fundamental answer to your question, who can lead and who's shown the ability to get things done? >> if i could say one thing. >> we are way over three-and-a- half minutes. go ahead. >> one of the key points in foreign policy and national security policy is the need to re-establish the old-fashioned principle that politics ought to stop at the water's edge. when i was in the united states congress, i worked with former president reagan to modernize our strategic weaponry and to pursue arms control in a responsible way. when i was in the united states senate i worked with former president bush, your father. i was one of only a few democrats in the senate to support the persian gulf war. i think bipartisanship is a national asset. we have to find ways to reestablish it in foreign policy and national security policy. >> do you have a problem with that? >> yeah. why haven't they done it in seven years? >> new subject. new question. should the voters of this election, vice president gore, see this in the domestic area as a major choice between competing political philosophies? >> oh, absolutely. this is a very important moment in the history of our country. look, we've got the biggest surpluses in all of american history. the key question that has to be answered in this election is will we use that prosperity wisely in a way that benefits all of our people and doesn't go just to the few. almost half of all the tax cut benefits, as i said under governor bush's plan, go to the wealthiest 1%. i think we have to make the right and responsible choices. i think we have to invest in education, protecting the environment, health care, a prescription drug benefit that goes to all seniors, not just to the poor, under medicare, not relying on hmos and insurance companies. i think that we have to help parents and strengthen families by dealing with the kind of inappropriate entertainment material that families are just heart sick that their children are exposed to. i think we've got to have welfare reform taken to the next stage. i think that we have got to balance the budget every single year, pay down the national debt and, in fact, under my proposal the national debt will be completely eliminated by the year 2012. i think we need to put medicare and social security in a lockbox. the governor will not put medicare in a lockbox. i don't think it should be used as a piggy bank for other programs. i think it needs to be moved out of the budget and protected. i'll veto anything that takes money out of social security or medicare for anything other than social security or medicare. now, the priorities are just very different. i'll give you a couple of examples. for every new dollar that i propose for spending on health care, governor bush spends $3 for a tax cut for the wealthiest 1%. now, for every dollar that i propose to spend on education, he spends $5 on a tax cut for the wealthiest 1%. those are very clear differences. >> governor, one minute. >> the man is practicing fuzzy math again. there's differences. under vice president gore's plan, he is going to grow the federal government in the largest increase since lyndon baines johnson in 1965. we're talking about a massive government, folks. we're talking about adding to or increasing 200 programs, 20,000 new bureaucrats. imagine how many irs agents it is going to take to be able to figure out his targeted tax cut for the middle class that excludes 50 million americans. there is a huge difference in this campaign. he says he's going to give you tax cuts. 50 million of you won't receive it. he said in his speech he wants to make sure the right people get tax relief. aat's not the role of president to decide right and wrong. everybody who pays taxes ought to get tax relief. after my plan is in place, the wealthiest americans will pay a higher percentage of taxes then they do today, the poorest of americans, six million families, won't pay any tax at all. it's a huge difference. a difference between big exploding federal government that wants to think on your behalf and a plan that meets priorities and liberates working people to be able to make decisions on your own. >> let me just say, jim, you haven't heard the governor deny these numbers. he's called them phony and fuzzy. the fact remains almost 30% of his proposed tax cut goes to -- only to americans that make more than $1 million per year. more money goes to the -- can i have a rebuttal here? >> i want to see if he buys that. >> let me tell you what the facts are. the facts are after my plan, the wealthiest of americans pay more taxes of the percentage of the whole than they do today. secondly, if you're a family of four making $50,000 in massachusetts, you get a 50% tax cut. let me give you one example. the strunk family in allentown, pennsylvania, i campaigned with them the other day. they make $51,000 combined income, they pay about $3500 in taxes. under my plan, they get $1800 of tax relief. under vice president go's plan, they get $145 of tax relief. now you tell me who stands on the side of the fence. you ask the strunks whose plan makes more sense. there is a difference of opinion. he would rather spend the family's $1800 and i would rather the strunks spend their own money. >> do you see it that way mr. vice president? >> no, i don't, and i'm not going to go to calling names on his facts. i'm just gonna tell you what the real facts are. the analysis that he's talking about leaves out more than half of the tax cuts that i have proposed. and if you just add the numbers up, he still hasn't denied it, he spends more money on a tax cut for the wealthiest 1% than all his new proposals for prescription drugs, healthcare, education, and national defense combined. now those are the wrong priorities. $665 billion over ten years for the wealthiest 1%. as i said, almost 30% of it goes to americans that make more than $1 million per year. every middle class family is eligible for a tax cut under my proposal. let me give you some specific examples. i believe college tuition up to $10,000 per year ought to be tax deductible so middle-class families can choose to send their children to college. i believe all senior citizens should be able to choose their own doctors and get prescription drugs from their own pharmacists with medicare paying half the bill. i believe parents ought to be able to make more choices need more public and charter school choice to send their kids always to a safe school. we need to make education the number one priority in our country and treat teachers like the professionals that they are. and that's why i have made it a number one priority in my budget, not a tax cut for the wealthy. >> let me talk about tax cuts one more time. this is a man whose plan excludes 50 million americans. >> not so. >> take for example the marriage penalty. if you itemize your tax return, you get no marriage penalty relief. he picks and chooses. he decides who the right people are. it's a fundamental difference of opinion. i want my fellow americans to hear one more time. we'll spend $25 trillion -- we'll collect $25 trillion in revenue in the next 10 years and spend $21 trillion. surely we can send 5% back to you that pay the bills. there's a problem wait. i want to say something, jim. this man has been disparaging my plan with all this washington fuzzy math. i want you to hear a problem we've got here in the usa. if you're a single mother making $22,000 a year and you have two children, under this tax code, for every additional dollar you make, you pay a higher marginal rate on that dollar than someone making more than $200,000 a year, and that is not right. my plan drops the rate from 15% to 10% and increases the child credit from $500 to $1,000 to make the code more fair for everybody, not just a few, not just a handful. everybody who pays taxes ought to get some relief. >> having cleared that up, we're going to a new question. education. governor bush. both of you have promised dramatically to change -- to change dramatically public education in this country. of the public money spent on education, only 6% of that is federal money. you want to change 100% of the public education with 6% of the money, is that possible? >> we can make a huge difference by saying if you receive federal money we expect you to show results. let me give you a story about public education, if i might. it's about kipp academy in houston, texas. a charter school run by some people from teach for america. young folks saying i'm going to do something good for my country. i want to teach. a guy named michael runs the school. it is a school full of so-called at-risk children. it's how we unfortunately label certain children. basically it means they can't learn. it's a school of strong discipline and high standards. it's one of the best schools in houston. here are the key ingredients. high expectations, strong accountabily. what michael says, don't put all these rules on us, just let us teach and hold us accountable for every grade. that's what we do. and as a result, these mainly hispanic youngsters are some of the best learners in houston, texas. that's my vision for public education all around america. many of you viewers don't know, but laura and i sent our girls to public school. they went to austin high school. and many of the public schools are meeting the call. but, unfortunately, a lot of schools are trapping children in schools that just won't teach and won't change. here is the role of the federal government. one is to change head start to a reading program. two is to say if you want to access reading money, you can do so. the goal is for every single child to learn to read. there must by k-2 diagnostic teaching tools, teacher training money, available. three, we have to consolidate the federal programs to free districts to free the schools and encourage innovators like michael. let them reach out beyond the confines of the current structure to recruit teach-for- the-children type teachers. four, we're going to say if you receive federal money, measure third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth grade. show us if they are learning to read, write, add and subtract and if so there will be bonus plans. but if not, instead of continuing to subsidize failure, the money will go to -- the federal money will go to the parents for public school or charter school or tutorial or catholic school. what i care about is children. and so does michael feinberg. and you know what? it can happen in america with the right kind of leadership. >> we agree on a couple of things on education. i strongly support new accountability, so does governor bush. i strongly support local control, so does governor bush. i'm in favor of testing as a way of measuring performance. every school and every school district, have every state test the children. voluntaryproposed a national test in the fourth grade and eighth grade, and a form of testing the governor has not endorsed. i think that all new teachers ought to be tested in the subjects that they teach. we've got to recruit 100,000 new teachers. and i have budgeted for that. we've got to reduce the class size so that the student who walks in has more one-on-one time with the teacher. we ought to have universal pre- school and we ought to make college tuition tax deductible, up to $10,000 a year. i would like to tell you a quick story. i got a letter today as i left sarasota, florida. i'm here with a group of 13 people from around the country who helped me prepare. we had a great time. two days ago we ate lunch at a restaurant. the guy that served us lunch gave me a letter today. his name is randy ellis. he has a 15-year-old daughter named caley, who is in sarasota high school. her science class was supposed to be for 24 students. she's the 36th student in that classroom. they sent me a picture of her in the classroom. they can't squeeze another desk in for her, so she has to stand during class. i want the federal government, consistent with local control and new accountability, to make improvement of our schools the number one priority so caley will have a desk and can sit down in a classroom where she can learn. >> all right. so having heard the two of you, the voters have just heard the two of you, what is the difference? what is the choice between the two of you on education? >> the first is, the difference is there is no new accountability measures in vice president gore's plan. he says he's for voluntary testing. you can't have voluntary testing. you must have mandatory testing. you must say that if you receive money you must show us whether or not children are learning to read and write and add and subtract. that's the difference. you may claim you've got mandatory testing but you don't, mr. vice president. that's a huge difference. testing is the cornerstone of reform. you know how i know? because it's the cornerstone of reform in the state of texas. republicans and democrats came together and said what can we do to make our public education the best in the country? workingne a long way together to do so. the cornerstone is to have strong accountability in return for money and in return for flexibility. we're going to ask you to show us whether or not -- we ask you to post the results on the internet. we encourage parents to take a look at the comparative results of schools. we have a strong charter school movement that i signed the legislation to get started in the state of texas. i believe if we find poor children trapped in schools that won't teach, we need to free the parents. we need to expand education savings accounts. something that the vice president's running mate supports. there's big differences. he won't support freeing local districts from the strings of federal money. >> first of all, i do have mandatory testing. i think the governor may not have heard what i said clearly. the voluntary national testing is in addition to the mandatory testing that we require of states. all schools, all school districts, students themselves, and required teacher testing, which goes a step farther than governor bush has been willing to go. here are a couple of differences, though, jim. governor bush is in favor of vouchers which take taxpayer money away from public schools and give them to private schools that are not accountable for how the money is used and don't have to take all applicants. now, private schools play a great role in our society. all of our children have gone to both public schools and private schools. but i don't think private schools should have a right to take taxpayer money away from public schools at a time when caley ellis is standing in that classroom. let me give you another example. i went to a school in dade county, florida where the facilities are so overcrowded the children have to eat lunch in shifts with the first shift for lunch starting at 9:30 in the morning. look, this is a funding crisis all around the country. there are fewer parents of school-age children as a percentage of the voting population and there is the largest generation of students ever. we're in an information age when learning is more important than ever. 90% of our kids go to public schools. we have to make it the number one priority. modernize our schools, reduce class size, recruit new teachers, give every child a chance to learn with one-on-one time in a quality -- high- quality, safe school. if it's a failing school, shut it down and reopen it under a new principal with a turnaround team of specialists the way governor jim hunt does in north carolina. here is another difference. the governor, if it's a failing school, would leave the children in that failing school for three years and then give a little bit of money to the parents, a down payment on a down payment for private school tuition, and pretend that that would be enough for them to go out and go to a private school. it's an illusion. >> wait a minute, governor. >> ok. first of all, most of good governance is at the state level. see, here is theentality. i'm going to make the state do this and make the state do that. all i'm saying is if you spend money, show us results and test every year, which you do not do, mr. vice president. you don't test every year. you can say you do to the cameras but you don't, unless you've changed your plan here on the stage. >> i didn't say that. >> you need to test every year. that's how you determine if children are progressing to excellence. secondly, one of the things that we have to be careful about in politics is throwing money at a system that has not yet been reformed. more money is needed and i spend more money, but step one is to make sure we reform the system to have the system in place that leaves no child behind. stop this business about asking gosh, how old are you? if you're 10 we'll put you here, 12 you put here. start asking the question, what do you know? if you don't know what you're supposed to know, we'll make sure you do early before it's too late. >> new question. we've been talking about a lot of specific issues. it's often said that in the final analysis about 90% of being the president of the united states is dealing with the unexpected, not with issues that came up in the campaign. vice president gore, can you point to a decision, an action you have taken, that illustrates your ability to handle the unexpected, the crisis under fire? >> when the action in kosovo was dragging on and we were searching for a solution to the problem, our country had defeated the adversary on the battlefield without a single american life being lost in combat. but the dictator milosevic was hanging on. i invited the former prime minister of russia to my house and took a risk in asking him to get personally involved, along with the head of finland, to go to belgrade and to take a set of proposals from the united states that would constitute basically a surrender by serbia. but it was a calculated risk that paid off. now, i could probably give you some other examples of decisions over the last 24 years. i have been in public service for 24 years, jim. and throughout all that time the people i have fought for have been the middle-class families, and i have been willing to stand up to powerful interests like the big insurance companies, the drug companies, the hmos, the oil companies. they have good people and they play constructive roles sometimes, but sometimes they get too much power. i cast my lot with the people even when it means that you have to stand up to some powerful interests who are trying to turn the -- the policies and the laws to their advantage. you can see it in this campaign. the big drug companies support governor bush's prescription drug proposal. they oppose mine because they don't want to get medicare involved because they're afraid that medicare will negotiate lower prices for seniors who currently pay the highest prices of all. >> governor bush? >> i've been standing up to big hollywood, big trial lawyers. was -- what was the question? it was about emergencies, wasn't it? >> it was about -- ok. >> you know, as governor, one of the things you have to deal with is catastrophe. i can remember the fires that swept parker county, texas. i remember the floods that swept our state. i remember going down to del rio, texas. i have to pay the administration a compliment. james lee witt of fema has done a really good job of working with governors during times of crisis. but that's the time when you're tested not only -- it's the time to test your mettle, a time to test your heart when you see people whose lives have been turned upside down. it broke my heart to go to the flood scene in del rio where a fellow and his family got completely uprooted. the only thing i knew to do was to get aid as quickly as possible with state and federal help, and to put my arms around the man and his family and cry with them. that's what governors do. they are often on the front line of catastrophic situations. >> new question. there can be all kinds of crises, governor. a questions for you. there could be a crisis, for instance, in the financial area, the stock market could take a tumble, there could be a failure of a major financial institution. what is your general attitude toward government intervention in such events? >> well, it depends, obviously. but what i would do first and foremost, is i would get in touch with the federal reserve chairman, alan greenspan, to find out all the facts and all the circumstances. i would have my secretary of the treasury be in touch with the financial centers not only here, but at home. i would make sure that key members of congress were called in to discuss the gravity of the situation. and i would come up with a game plan to deal with it. that's what governors end up doing. we end up being problem solvers. we come up with practical, common sense solutions for problems that we're confronted with. in this case, in the case of a financial crisis, i would gather all the facts before i made the decision as to what the government ought or ought not to do. >> vice president gore? >> first i want to compliment the governor on his response to those fires and floods in texas. i accompanied james lee witt down to texas when those fires broke out. and fema has been a major flagship project of our reinventing government efforts. and i agree, it works extremely well now. on the international financial crises that come up, my friend, bob rubin, the former secretary of treasury is here, he's a close advisor to me and great friend in all respects. i have had a chance to work with him and alan greenspan and others on the crisis following the collapse of the mexican peso. when the asian financial crisis raised the risk of world-wide recession that could affect our economy, and now, of course, the euro's value has been dropping, but seems to be under control. but it started for me in the last eight years when i had the honor of casting the tie- breaking vote to end the old economic plan here at home and put into place a new economic plan that has helped us to make some progress, 22 million new jobs, the greatest prosperity ever. but it's not good enough. my attitude is you ain't seen nothing yet. we need to do more and better. >> so, governor, would you agree there is no basic difference here on intervening -- on federal government intervening in what might be seen by others to be a private financial crisis? >> no, there's no difference on that. there is a difference, though, as to what the economy has meant. i think the economy has meant more for the gore and clinton folks than the gore and clinton folks have meant for the economy. i think most of the economic growth that has taken place is a result of ingenuity and hard work and entrepreneurship and that's the role of goverment to encourage that. in terms of in response to the question, no. >> can i comment on that? >> you may. >> you know, i think the american people deserve credit for the great economy that we have. it's their ingenuity, i agree with that. but you know, they were working pretty hard eight years ago. and now they had ingenuity eight years ago. the difference is we've got a new policy. and instead of concentrating on tax cuts mostly for the wealthy, we want -- i want tax cuts for the middle-class families and i want to continue the prosperity and make sure that it enriches not just a few but all of our families. we have gone from the biggest deficits to the biggest surpluses. we have gone from a triple-dip recession during the previous 12 years to a tripling of the stock market. instead of a high unemployment, we have the lowest african- american and latin american unemployment rates in history and 22 million new jobs. it's not good enough. too many people have been left behind. we have got to do much more. the key is job training, education, investments in health care and education, environment, retirement security. and incidentally, we have got to preserve social security. i'm totally opposed to diverting one out of every six dollars out of the social security trust fund, as the governor has proposed, into the stock market. i want new incentives for savings and investment for the young couples who are working hard so they can save and invest on their own on top of social security, not at the expense of social security, as the governor proposes. >> two points. one, a lot of folks are still waiting for that 1992 middle- class tax cut. i remember the vice president saying, "just give us a chance to get up there, we're going to make sure you get tax cuts." it didn't happen. now he's having to say that again. they've had their chance to deliver a tax cut to you. secondly, the surest way to bust this economy is to increase the role and size of the federal budget. the senate budget committee did a study of the vice president's expenditures. it's been projected that they could conceivably bust the budget by $900 billion. that means he'll either have to raise your taxes by $900 billion or go into the social security surplus for $900 billion. this is a plan that is going to increase the bureaucracy by 20,000 people. his targeted tax cut is so detailed, so much fine print that it is going to require numerous irs agents. we need somebody to simplify the code, to be fair, to continue prosperity by sharing some of the surplus with the people who pay the bills, particularly those at the bottom end of the economic ladder. >> if i could respond, jim. what he's quoting is not the senate budget commiitte, it is a partisan press release by the republicans on the senate budget committee that's not worth the government -- the taxpayer-paid paper that it's printed on. now, as for 20,000 new bureaucrats, as you call them, you know, the size of the federal government will go down in a gore administration. in the reinventing government program you just look at the numbers. it is 300,000 people smaller today than it was eight years ago. now, the fact is you're going to have a hard time convincing folks that we were a whole lot better off eight years ago than we are today. but that's not the question. the question is, will we be better off four years from now than we are today? and as for the surest way to threaten our prosperity, having a $1.9 trillion tax cut, almost half of which goes to the wealthy, and a $1 trillion social security privatization proposal is the surest way to put our budget into deficit raise interest rates and put our prosperity at risk. >> i can't let the man continue with fuzzy math. it is 1.3 trillion mr. vice president. it will go to everybody who pays taxes. i'm not going to be the kind of president that says you get tax relief and you don't. i'm not going to be a picker and chooser. what is fair is everybody who pays taxes ought to get relief. >> i thought we cleared this up a while ago. new question on social security. both of you have social security reform plans, so we could spend the rest of the evening and two or three other evenings talking about them in detail. we won't do that. but -- >> suits me. [laughter] >> many experts, including federal reserve chairman greenspan, vice president gore, say that it will be impossible for either of you, essentially, to keep the system viable on its own during the coming baby boomer retirement onslaught without either reducing benefits or increasing taxes. you disagree? >> i do disagree. because if we can keep our prosperity going, if we can continue balancing the budget and paying down the debt, then the strong economy keeps generating surpluses. here is my plan. i will keep social security in a lockbox and that pays down the national debt. and the interest savings i would put right back into social security. that extends the life of social security for 55 years. now, i think that it's very important to understand that cutting benefits under social security means that people like winifred skinner from des moines, iowa, who is here, would really have a much harder time. because there are millions of seniors who are living almost hand to mouth. and you talk about cutting benefits. i don't go along with it. i am opposed to it. i'm also opposed to a plan that diverts 1 out of every $6 away from the social security trust fund. social security is a trust fund that pays the checks this year with the money that is paid into social security this year. the governor wants to divert 1 out of every $6 off into the stock market, which means that he would drain a trillion dollars out of the social security trust fund in thi generation over the next ten years, and social security under that approach would go bankrupt within this generation. his leading advisor on this plan actually said that would be okay, because then the social security trust fund could start borrowing. it would borrow up to $3 trillion. now, social security has never done that. and i don't think it should do that. i think it should stay in a lockbox, and i'll tell you this. i will veto anything that takes money out of social security for privatization or anything else other than social security. >> i thought it was interesting that on the two minutes he spent about a million-and-a-half on my plan, which means he doesn't want you to know what he's doing is loading up ious for future generations. he puts no real assets into the social security system. the revenues exceed the expenses in social security until the year 2015 which means all retirees are going to get the promises made. for those of you who he wants to scare into the voting booth to vote for him, hear me loud and clear. a promise made will be a promise kept. you bet we want to allow younger workers to take some of their own money. that's the difference of opinion. the vice president thinks it's the government's money. the payroll taxes are your money. you ought to put it in prudent, safe investments so that $1 trillion over the next ten years grows to be $3 trillion. the money stays within the social security system. it's a part of the social security system. he claims it will be out of social security. it's your money, it's a part of your retirement benefit. it's a fundamental difference between what we believe. i want you to have your own asset that you can call your own. that you can pass on from one generation to the next. i want to get a better rate of return for your own money than the paltry 2% that the current social security trust gets today. mr. greenspan i thought missed an opportunity to say there's a third way, and that is to get a better rate of return on the social security monies coming into the trust. there is $2.3 trillion of surplus that we can use to make sure that younger workers have a social security plan in the future. if we're smart and if we trust workers and if we understand the power of the compounding rate of interest. >> here is the difference. i give a new incentive for younger workers to save their own money and invest their own money, but not at the expense of social security, on top of social security. my plan is social security plus. the governor's plan is social security minus. your future benefits would be cut by the amount that's diverted into the stock market. if you make bad investments, that's too bad. but even before then the problem hits because the money contributed to social security this year is an entitlement. that's how it works. and the money is used to pay the benefits for seniors this year. if you cut the amount going in 1 out of every $6, then you have to cut the value of each check by 1 out of every $6 unless you come up with the money from somewhere else. i would like to know from the governor -- i know we're not supposed to ask each other questions -- but i'd be interested in knowing, does that trillion dollars come from the trust fund, or does it come from the rest of the budget? >> no. there's enough money to pay seniors today in the current affairs of social security. the trillion comes from the surplus. surplus is money -- more money than needed. let me tell you what your plan is. it's not social security plus, it's social security plus huge debt. that is what it is. you leave future generations with tremendous iou's. it's time to have a leader that doesn't put off tomorrow what we should do today. it's time to have somebody to step up and say look, let's let younger workers take some of their own money and under certain guidelines invest it in the private markets. the private markets.