The City of Sacramento FY 2024-2025 budget, to be adopted at the June 11 council meeting, includes $250K for the RydeFreeRT program. The original proposal from City Manager Howard Chan was to withdraw from the program completely, but Mayor Darrel Steinberg requested that $250K be retained for the free student fares. Councilmember Mai Vang might possibly support the full $1M. Steinberg has talked to SacRT about picking up $250K, Sac City Unified $250K, and the other school districts in the city (Natomas, Elk Grove and Twin Rivers) $250K, but no agreement has been reached.
The SacRT Board agenda for June 10 includes consent item 2.5 Approving the Issuance of an Annual Student (TK12) pass to students without a full fare subsidy and delegating authority to the General Manager/CEO to negotiate and and execute student transit pass agreements for the RydeFreeRT program. It seems strange that after so much public interest, this item has ended up on the consent calendar, as though it would be of little interest to the board or the public. At the May 21st city council meeting, Councilmember Mai Vang, said “With four of us (meaning city council members) on the SacRT board, hoping that we will have that full conversation…” A consent agenda item is not a full conversation, in fact, it is NO conversation.
STAR asks that this agenda item be pulled from consent and discussed by the board.
Sacramento Transit Advocates and Riders (STAR) 