State Senator Steve Glazer is saying what a lot of Bay Area taxpayers have been thinking for years: BART needs to make some hard choices before it comes back to voters with its hand out.

This shouldn't be controversial. BART ridership is still well below pre-pandemic levels. Service reliability remains a punchline. And yet the agency's cost structure — particularly its labor agreements — continues to operate as if it's 2019 and trains are packed to the gills. The math doesn't work, and pretending otherwise isn't a strategy. It's a prayer.

Glazer's argument is straightforward: if BART wants voters to approve new funding, it needs to demonstrate fiscal discipline first. That means confronting bloated overhead, renegotiating compensation packages that are out of step with ridership realities, and proving that every dollar already in the system is being spent wisely. You know — the stuff any business would do before asking investors for another round.

Now, critics will frame this as an attack on transit workers. One Bay Area commenter put it sarcastically: the alternative to reform is apparently to "shut it all down and make everyone cram on to the freeways instead." Fair enough — nobody serious is arguing for abolishing BART. But acknowledging that a public agency needs to tighten its belt isn't anti-transit. It's pro-accountability. There's a difference.

The real question is whether BART leadership has the political will to make meaningful changes or whether they'll keep kicking the can down the track until the fiscal cliff forces emergency cuts that hurt riders most. We've seen this movie before with San Francisco institutions — delay, deny, then demand a bailout.

Voters in the Bay Area aren't anti-transit. They're anti-waste. They've watched billions flow into systems that still can't keep escalators running or stations clean. Trust isn't rebuilt with glossy campaign mailers about infrastructure investments. It's rebuilt with results.

BART has a window to get serious about reform. The alternative — stumbling into a funding crisis with no credibility left — is worse for riders, workers, and taxpayers alike. Make the hard choices now, or don't be surprised when voters make theirs.