Riding The Gravy Train

REFUND TRANSIT COALITION
Riding the
Gravy Train
How Wall Street Is Bankrupting Our Public Transit
Agencies by Profiteering off of Toxic Swap Deals
June 2012
Refund Transit Coalition is a group of transit advocates, workers

and supporters dedicating to exposing that big banks on Wall Street are
gouging transit agencies and the governments that fund them for more than
half a billion dollars each year through toxic deals known as interest rate swaps.
The coalition calls on banks to renegotiate these toxic interest rate swap deals
immediately to stop the bilking of taxpayers and free much needed resources
for our local transit agencies and governments.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Across the country, the state and local budget crises have hit public transit agencies very hard. As public officials
try to cope with record revenue shortfalls caused by the economic crisis created by the banks, public transit
is on the chopping block. In city after city, transit riders are facing fare hikes and service cuts. But while
riders are forced to bear the costs of solving transit agencies budget problems, the big banks on Wall Street
are gouging many of these same agencies and the governments that fund them for more than half a billion
dollars each year through toxic deals known as interest rate swaps.
OFF THE RAILS.

Wall Street banks sold these swap deals to state and local governments and transit agencies as a way to save
money and lower borrowing costs. However, when the banks crashed the economy in 2008, the federal
government aggressively drove down interest rates as part of the bank bailout. These artificially low interest
rates have changed the math on these deals, and governments and agencies are now losing millions of
dollars every year as a result. The banks are reaping a windfall at taxpayers and riders expense, and it is a direct
result of the bailout-era interest rates.
THROWING RIDERS UNDER THE BUS.

We have identified a dozen places around the country where banks have entered into toxic swap deals directly
with transit agencies or with the governments that provide substantial funding to them: Baton Rouge, Boston,
Charlotte, Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles, New Jersey, New York, Philadelphia, the San Francisco Bay Area,
San Jose, and Washington, DC. In these 12 places alone, banks are overcharging taxpayers and riders $529
million a year.
JUMPING THE TURNSTILE.

Furthermore, there have been widespread reports recently that several banks may have been colluding to
manipulate interest rates downward, causing governments and agencies to lose even more money on these
deals. Global financial regulators have opened investigations into this issue, and the City of Baltimore is the
lead plaintiff in a federal class-action lawsuit claiming that municipalities losses on these swap deals were
magnified as a result of this alleged manipulation. This alleged fraud could have cost just the transit agencies and
governments covered in this report more than $92 million.
PULLING THE EMERGENCY BRAKE.

Banks need to renegotiate these deals with our governments and transit agencies to save taxpayers and riders
millions of dollars each year. Across the country, in places like Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Los Angeles, and
Oakland, state and local officials have called on public entities to renegotiate or get out of these swap deals.
Furthermore, there are already examples of places where banks have agreed to renegotiate swaps with public
bodies to save taxpayers money, so we know that this can be done.
GETTING BACK ON TRACK.

Our public officials are faced with difficult choices as they try to fill vast budget holes that grow bigger by
the day as the Great Recession wears on. But it is a mistake to balance those budgets on the backs of transit
riders and taxpayers, while bleeding away millions of dollars a year to the same banks that caused the economic
crisis. It is time to get our priorities in order. We cannot keep robbing working families to pay the rich
bankers on Wall Street. We need to make banks renegotiate these toxic interest rate swap deals to save taxpayers
and riders more than half a billion dollars annually.
RIDING THE GRAVY TRAIN - How Wall Street Is Bankrupting Our Public Transit Agencies | 1
RIDING THE GRAVY TRAIN
Tamika Williams is a mother and

a disabled bus rider, who often relies
on AC Transit in East Bay, CA to get
around. I often find myself waiting
extra-long periods of time for the bus
and there is no bench or shelter near
my neighborhood bus stop to relax. I
try to call ahead to find out what time
the bus will be there but they are often
wrong. Then I found out the information operators for AC Transit dont
even live in my city or my state because
of all the budget cuts they have all
been outsourced. We need our bus
service restored.
An investment in public transit is an investment in the American

people. Millions of Americans rely on buses and trains to get to work
and school every day. Local businesses depend on customers who use
public transportation to get to their shops. Public transit creates jobs,
protects the environment, and improves our quality of life. Every
dollar invested in public transportation generates $4 in economic
benefits.1 According to the American Public Transportation
Association (APTA), public transit boosts state and local tax revenues
by up to 16%, and a $20 million investment in building and running
public transportation systems creates 900 jobs.2
However, public transit is under attack. Across the country, the state
and local budget crises have hit public transit agencies very hard.
As public officials try to cope with record revenue shortfalls caused
by the economic crisis created by the banks, public transit is on the
chopping block. As a result, nearly 80% of transit agencies have been
forced to slash services or raise fares in order to make ends meet since
the beginning of the recession, balancing their budgets on the backs
of riders.3 This impacts all riders, but it has a particularly devastating
impact on students, seniors, people with disabilities, and low-income
riders, who often do not have other means of transportation.
While riders are forced to bear the costs of solving transit agencies
budget problems, the big banks on Wall Street are gouging many
of these same agencies and the governments that fund them for
$529 million each year. Transit agencies from Boston to Los Angeles
are stuck in toxic deals known as interest rate swaps. Cash-strapped
agencies have already seen their state funding get slashed because
of budget shortfalls caused by the economic crisis that these banks
created. As they struggle to figure out how to pay to keep the buses
running and the trains moving, they are forced to send mountains of
cash to Wall Street as a result of these swap deals. That money could
instead pay for expanded service, discounted fares for students and
seniors, new buses, long overdue repairs, and thousands of good jobs
that our economy so desperately needs.
When the banks were on the brink of collapse in 2008, we bailed
them out with our taxpayer dollars. In all, we made $15 trillion
available to the financial sector through various taxpayer-funded
bailout and backstop programs.4 Now those same banks are squeezing
us for more than half a billion dollars a year. Our bus fares are going
up because our transit agencies cannot make ends meet. We need to
take an extra half hour to get to work because the trains no longer
run as often. People with disabilities have to rely on others to get
around town because their bus routes have been eliminated. Our
kids need to find new ways to get to school because their student
2 | RIDING THE GRAVY TRAIN - How Wall Street Is Bankrupting Our Public Transit Agencies
discounts no longer apply. Those among us who can

least afford it are being forced to bear the costs of the
agencies budget crunch, while the banks make off
with our millions.
The banks that caused the economic crisis that is
strangling state and local budgets need to do their
part to fix the problem they created. Banks like Bank
of America, JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, and
Wells Fargo need to renegotiate these toxic swap
deals with our transit agencies to save riders millions
of dollars each year.
OFF THE RAILS

All state and local governmental units, including
transit agencies, pay for long-term projects by
borrowing money. They typically do this by issuing
bonds, which have to be paid back over time
with interest. Transit agencies regularly issue bonds
for major construction projects like laying the
track on a new train line and for capital expenditures
like buying new buses. As with mortgages, there
are two general categories of bonds: conventional,
fixed-rate bonds that have a set interest rate that
remains constant over the life of the bonds, and
variable-rate bonds that have a floating interest rate
that can go up or down depending on fluctuations
in the market. Variable-rate bonds are like
adjustable-rate mortgagesone can typically get a
lower interest rate on the front end, but there is
always the risk that rates will shoot up later and
the payments on the bonds will skyrocket.
When governments and transit agencies issued
variable-rate bonds, banks offered them a deal. The
banks said that if the agencies would pay them a
steady, fixed interest rate, then the banks would
pay them back a variable rate that they could
use to pay the interest on the bonds. Banks sold
these deals as insurance policies that would let
taxpayers lock in lower interest rates without
having to worry about rates shooting up in the
future. However, these deals were actually more
of a gamble than an insurance policy. If variable
FIGURE 1: The Structure of an Interest Rate Swap Deal
rates fell really low, then they could actually end

up costing agencies millions of dollars. That is
exactly what happened when the banks crashed
the economy in 2008.
As part of the banking industry bailout in the
fall of 2008, the federal government aggressively
drove down interest rates to near zero to spur
economic recovery and help the banks get back
on their feet.5 This let banks borrow money
from the federal government practically for
free.6 These record low interest rates have had an
unintended consequence that has proven very
costly for taxpayers. Because the banks variablerate payments on swap deals are linked to
prevailing interest rates in the market, their swap
payments have plummeted to near zero. However,
governments and transit agencies are still locked
into substantially higher fixed rates and cannot
refinance into lower rates unless they pay the
banks hefty termination penalties. As a result,
taxpayers are typically stuck paying 3% to 6%
interest on these deals, but they get back less
than 0.5% from the banks. The banks get to
pocket the difference as profit, which adds up
to billions of dollars each year.7
The banks are profiteering off the low bailout
rates. The federal government slashed rates to get
the economy going again by encouraging banks
to lend to homeowners, small businesses, cities,
states, and public agencies.8 Instead of passing
the savings onto the taxpayers who bailed them
out, the banks are taking advantage of our
generosity by gouging us on these toxic deals.
Figure 2 shows how changes in the Federal Reserves
Federal Funds Rate coincided with increases in
the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation
Authoritys (SEPTA) swap deals.
FIGURE 2: The Federal Funds Rate vs. SEPTAs Monthly Swap Losses to Bank
of America9
Nationally, researchers have identified approximately 1,100

toxic swap deals at more than 100 different governmental
units, including transit agencies. Together, taxpayers are losing
more than $2.5 billion a year on these 1,100 deals alone.10
This is just the tip of the iceberg and there are likely hundreds
of other interest rate swap deals out there that have not yet
been analyzed.
THROWING RIDERS UNDER THE BUS

Across the country, transit agencies are losing hundreds of
millions of dollars as a result of these toxic swap deals. We have
identified a dozen places around the country where banks have
entered into toxic swap deals directly with transit agencies or
with the state/local governmental units that provide substantial
funding to them. In those 12 places alone, banks are overcharging
taxpayers and riders $529 million a year.15
NATIONAL PUBLIC TRANSIT RIDER PROFILE16

Median annual earnings for transit riders in the country: $30,501
Percentage of riders making below $25,000 annually: 43%
Percentage of riders who are people of color: 60%
Percentage of riders without a car: 37%
Governments and public agencies

entered into interest rate swaps
because at the time they issued the
related variable-rate debt, the cost
of a conventional fixed-rate bond
would have been even higher. Many
of these deals seemed to make sense
at the time they were initiated
because interest rates were never
expected to fall as low as they have.
However, these deals carried hidden
risks. In 2009, Pennsylvania Auditor
General Jack Wagner wrote, The
majority of entities handling swaps
in the public arena dont understand
them, which is putting public
money at risk.11 He said these deals
amount to gambling with taxpayer
money.12
A key part of the problem was
that many of the governments and
agencies that entered into these deals
did not understand the risks. The
banks that sold them these swaps
were not legally required to act in
their best interest in giving them
advice.13 Moreover, because interest
rate swaps are structured as a zerosum game, where taxpayers loss is
the banks profit, there is a major
conflict of interest for the banks. The
Dodd-Frank Act includes provisions
to tackle this conflict of interest
problem, but when the Securities
and Exchange Commission (SEC)
and the Commodity Futures
Trading Commission (CFTC) wrote
regulations to implement the law
they, watered it down so much that
the problem continues to persist.14
Banks/Swap
Counterparties
Related Transit Agency
$13.3 million
Bank of America, Citigroup

Deutsche Bank
Capital Area Transit System (CATS)
Massachusetts Bay Transportation

Authority (MBTA)
$25.8 million
Deutsche Bank
JPMorgan Chase
Morgan Stanley. UBS
Massachusetts Bay Transportation

Authority (MBTA)
City of Charlotte
$19.4 million
Bank of America
Wells Fargo
Charlotte Area Transit System (CATS)
$88.2 million
AIG, Bank of America

BNY Mellon, Citigroup
Deutsche Bank
Goldman Sachs
JPMorgan Chase
Loop Capital
Morgan Stanley
Wells Fargo
Chicago Transit Authority (CTA)
$54.0 million
Citigroup
JPMorgan Chase
Loop Capital
Morgan Stanley
SBS Financial, UBS
Detroit Department of
Transportation (DDOT)
$19.6 million
Bank of Montreal
Deutsche Bank
Goldman Sachs
Wells Fargo
Los Angeles County Metropolitan

Transportation Authority (LACMTA)
$83.2 million
Bank of America
Bank of Montreal
Citigroup
Goldman Sachs
Morgan Stanley
Natixis, UBS
Wells Fargo
New Jersey Transit
Metropolitan Transportation
Authority (MTA)
Metro Area
Public Entity/Agency with Swap
Baton Rouge
City of Baton Rouge & Parish

of East Baton Rouge
Boston
Charlotte
Chicago
State of Illinois
Detroit
City of Detroit
Los Angeles
Los Angeles County Metropolitan

Transportation Authority (LACMTA)
Annual Swap
Losses
New Jersey
State of New Jersey
New York City
Authority (MTA)
$113.9 million
AIG, Ambac
BNP Paribas, Citigroup
JPMorgan Chase
Morgan Stanley, UBS
Philadelphia
Southeastern Pennsylvania
Transportation Authority (SEPTA) and
City of Philadelphia
$39.0 million
Bank of America
Citigroup
JPMorgan Chase, RBC
Southeastern Pennsylvania
Transportation Authority (SEPTA)
Commission (MTC)
San Francisco
Bay Area
Commission (MTC)
$48.1 million
Ambac, Bank of America

BNY Mellon, Citigroup
Goldman Sachs
JPMorgan Chase
Morgan Stanley
San Jose
Santa Clara Valley Transportation

Authority (VTA)
$13.0 million
Bank of America, Citigroup

Goldman Sachs
Morgan Stanley
Santa Clara Valley Transportation

Authority (VTA)
Washington, DC
District of Columbia
$11.1 million
JPMorgan Chase
Morgan Stanley
Wells Fargo
Washington Metropolitan Area

Transit Authority (WMATA)
TOTAL
$528.6 MILLION
FIGURE 3: Transit Agencies & State/Local Governments Annual Losses on Swap Deals
BATON ROUGE
EAST BATON ROUGE PARISH PUBLIC TRANSIT RIDER PROFILE17
Median annual earnings for transit riders in the parish:
$14,106
Percentage of riders making below $25,000 annually:
78%
Percentage of riders who are African-American:
64%
Percentage of riders without a car:
50%
The Capital Area Transit System (CATS) is the regional transit authority serving
the Baton Rouge metropolitan region.18 Despite serving the second largest
metropolitan area in Louisiana, CATS has no independent funding stream.19
The system has been in continual crisis and it was estimated that CATS would
have run out of funding in July of this year.20 Service has been terrible with
average wait times between buses of more than an hour and rides averaging
nearly two and a half hours;21 yet riders contributed nearly twice as much to the
system in fares than comparable cities. The 50% of public transit riders in East
Baton Rouge Parish that do not have a car have no choice but to put up with
paying more for less. This past April, voters approved a ten-year $10.6 million ($1.06 million per year) property
tax to fund the system.22
This new tax on residents would not be needed if the City of Baton Rouge and East Baton Rouge Parish
renegotiates its toxic swap agreements with Bank of America, Citigroup, and Deutsche Bank. CATS relies
on the city/parish government for a significant portion of its budget, and in 2012, it only received a little
more than half the funding it requested from the local government.23 A fraction of the $13.3 million that
taxpayers are sending Wall Street every year would be enough to fund CATS without raising taxes on Baton
Rouge homeowners.24
BOSTON
CITY OF BOSTON PUBLIC TRANSIT RIDER PROFILE 25
Median annual earnings for transit riders in the city:
$31,114
40%
Percentage of riders who are people of color:
51%
39%
The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA, or the T) operates the nations fifth largest regional
transit system, serving 175 cities and towns in Massachusetts26 that cover about 70 percent of the states
population.27 The T provides over 370 million trips per year, including more than 2 million trips on the
RIDEthe paratransit service for riders with disabilities.28 Fifty-five percent of all work trips into Boston
rely on the T.29
The T may be the fifth-largest system in the U.S., but according to its Fare
and Service Change Information Booklet, it has the highest debt burden of
any U.S. transit agency.30 Just about every dollar the T collects in fares
goes to pay down the debt.31 This crushing debt burden has helped
contribute to a FY 2013 deficit of $160 million.32 In order to plug the hole
in the budget this year, the T approved an average fare increase of 23%.
Riders with disabilities and seniors, however, face draconian and
disproportionate hikes of up to 150% and 87.5%, respectively. The T
expects these hikes to lead to a reduction of more than 242,000 trips on
33
the RIDE. Thats nearly a quarter-million trips that riders with disabilities wont be taking to get to the
doctor, the pharmacist and the supermarket.
Wall Street banks have swooped in to take advantage of a financially desperate transit agencyand its riders
by roping the T into risky interest rate swap deals. The T is losing about $26 million a year on five toxic swaps
still outstanding with Deutsche Bank, JPMorgan Chase and UBS.34 Over the next two decades the T will lose
another $254 million on these swaps.35 Meanwhile, the T expects to save $12.6 millionabout half what its
paying to the banks each yearby hiking fares on riders with disabilities up to 150%.36 In other words, the
just half of the Ts payments on these toxic swap deals would be enough to reverse these fare hikes.
Swaps are not a new problem for the T. In 2008 the Massachusetts Auditor found that, from July 2000
through December 2005 alone, the T had actually increased its debt service costs by $55 million through
a number of harmful swap deals.37 In other words, the T was losing money on these deals even before the
economic crisis hit. Since then the T has lost hundreds of millions more.38 Meanwhile, the riders who can
least afford it have been forced to pay for these deals with astronomical fare hikes.
CHARLOTTE
CITY OF CHARLOTTE PUBLIC TRANSIT RIDER PROFILE 39
$19,749
60%
79%
41%
The Charlotte Area Transit System (CATS) is managed by the City of

Charlottes Public Transit Department.40 The city contributes over $18
million annually to the system, but CATSs principal source of funding comes
from a half-cent sales tax.41 Since the economic recession, sales tax revenues
have plummeted, and to make up for the shortfall CATS has raised fares on
buses and light rail three times in the past four years with another increase
proposed.42 These fare hikes have a devastating impact on Charlotte transit
riders, 60% of whom make less than $25,000 a year and more than 40% of
whom are dependent on public transit to get around. 43 The pending increase
is expected to garner $2.5 million additional revenue, an amount that could easily be covered by the $19.4
million that Charlotte is dishing out annually in swap payments to Bank of America and Wells Fargo.44
CHICAGO
CITY OF CHICAGO PUBLIC TRANSIT RIDER PROFILE 45
$29,408
34%
58%
36%
1.6 million people ride the Chicago Transit Authoritys (CTA) buses and trains
every weekday, making it the second largest public transit system in the country.
One in six transit riders in Chicago makes less than $10,000 annually and
58% are people of color. The CTA relies on the State of Illinois for a significant
portion of its public funding, and in the past state budget gaps have resulted
in funding shortfalls for the transit agency.
In March 2012, CTA Chief Financial Officer Lois Scott said that the agency
may need to evaluate other sources of financing as it looks to fund future
projects. One such option that she mentioned was distance-based pricing, which refers to a fare structure that
would charge higher fares based on distance traveled. This would disparately impact low-income residents
who are more dependent on public transit and have been pushed to the outer parts of the city, away from
Downtown, as a result of gentrification.
Instead of making low-income communities pay for the CTAs much-needed infrastructure projects, officials
should look to the State of Illinoiss interest rate swap deals for a solution. Illinois loses $88.2 million a year
on these deals. While the state is forced to slash funding to public agencies like the CTA, it is forced to ship
millions every year to Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, Morgan
Stanley, AIG, Deutsche Bank, Bank of New York Mellon, and Loop Capital. The state will pay these banks
$1.2 billion between now and 2033, when the last of these deals is set to expire. State and local officials
should not force the CTA to balance its budget on the backs of low-income Chicagoans when they are sending
the banks on Wall Street millions of dollars in free money every year.
Don Buckley lost his job driving a Chicago Transit Authority bus over two years ago and has been
looking for work ever since, even as bus drivers around the country are being laid off.
Buckley, his two daughters and his fiance had to move into the basement of his mothers house, delay his marriage,
and he has spent all his savings. I was the kind of person who put away for a rainy day. Its flooding now.
Buckley is still looking for work, but decent-paying jobs do not exist. I was living the American dream
my version of the American dream. Then it crumbled. You get used to having things and then they take
them away, and you realize how lucky you were.
DETROIT
CITY OF DETROIT PUBLIC TRANSIT RIDER PROFILE 53
$11,956
76%
Percentage of riders who are African-American:
90%
55%
The City of Detroit was brought to the brink of bankruptcy in 2009 when
its swap deals blew up. When the citys credit rating was downgraded, UBS
and other banks threatened to terminate the citys swap deals and demanded
$400 million in penalties, which the city did not have.54 Detroit was able to
renegotiate its deals with the banks to save some money, but as a result, it
has to make a $4.2 million monthly payment to the banks before a single
cent can go to schools, transportation, and other critical services, according
to BusinessWeek.55 As a result of the citys budget pinch, it was forced to make
drastic cuts to public transit, eliminating bus routes, delaying equipment
repairs, and laying off workers. Wait times at buses increased as much as 33%
in some areas as a result of service cuts.56
Since 2008, Detroit has been able to take out offsetting swaps on six of its original deals, under which banks
return part of the fixed rate paid by the city.57 Even after all of these renegotiations, the city is still losing $54.0
million a year on its swap deals, exacerbating its budget crisis.58 Detroits swaps are with Citigroup, JPMorgan
Chase, Loop Capital, Morgan Stanley, SBS Financial, and UBS.59 This has taken a big toll on the citys public
transit system, which is run by the Detroit Department of Transportation (DDOT). The mayor announced
plans to put the DDOT under private management in November 2011,60 and then in February 2012, DDOT
announced plans to eliminate overnight bus service altogether.61 The median annual earnings for Detroit transit
riders are just $11,956. 76% of DDOT public transit riders make less than $25,000 a year and 55% of do not
have a car and so are dependent on public transit to get to work.62 By cutting public transit, the city has shifted
the costs of these toxic swap deals to those who can least afford it.
LOS ANGELES
LOS ANGELES COUNTY PUBLIC TRANSIT RIDER PROFILE 63
Median annual earnings for transit riders in the county:
$15,969
71%
87%
30%
The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (LACMTA or L.A. Metro) is the fourth
largest transit system in the country, servicing 1.4 million riders daily.64 Since 2007 L.A. Metro has raised
fares for single rides and passes between 20% and 100%, while at the
same time reducing bus service by 12%.65 Low-income communities and
communities of color are most heavily impacted by these cuts. 87% of Los
Angeles County bus riders are people of color, and nearly three-fourths
make less than $25,000 annually.66 Riders median income is just below
$16,000.67 After a yearlong investigation, the Federal Transit Administration
recently found that L.A. Metros service cuts failed to comply with
federal civil rights requirements to assess potential discriminatory impacts
in service changes.68
L.A. Metros most recent service cuts were geared to save the agency $23 million annually. That is only
slightly more than the $19.6 million the transit authority is paying Wall Street banks annually on its toxic
swap deals.69 The four banks pocketing these millions are Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank and
the Bank of Montreal, which operates as BMO Harris in the US.70 Figure 4 below lists the details of each
of LACMTAs five outstanding interest rate swaps. For many low-income commuters in Los Angeles, service
cuts mean they are forced to take multiple buses and pay multiple transfer fares because their direct bus service
has been eliminated.71 So while the Wall Street banks continue to enrich themselves, Los Angeles commuters
are faced with longer commutes and increasing costs.
Notional
Value
LACMTAs
Fixed Rate
Banks
Variable Rate
Formula
Banks
Variable Rate
as of 5/2/2012
Net Swap
Rate as of
5/2/2012
Annual
Losses on
Swap
Bank
Counterparty
$86.2 M
3.501%
64% of
1-mo. LIBOR
0.154%
-3.347%
$2.9 M
Bank of
Montreal
$130.0 M
3.373%
63% of
1-mo. LIBOR
0.151%
-3.222%
$4.2 M
Bank of
Montreal
$130.1 M
3.358%
63% of
1-mo. LIBOR
0.151%
-3.207%
$4.2 M
Deutsche
Bank
$89.6 M
3.392%
68% of
1-mo. LIBOR
0.163%
-3.229%
$2.9 M
Goldman
Sachs
$166.5 M
3.454%
68% of
1-mo. LIBOR
0.163%
-3.291%
$5.5 M
Wells Fargo
TOTAL
$19.6 M
FIGURE 4: The Details of LACMTAs Swap Deals72
NEW JERSEY
STATE OF NEW JERSEY PUBLIC TRANSIT RIDER PROFILE 73
Median annual earnings for transit riders in the state:
$45,894
32%
61%
25%
Over the last couple of years, New Jersey Transit has had to raise fares, cut
service, and increase wait times for its 900,000 riders in order to make ends
meet. In 2010, NJ Transit instituted the highest fare hike in its history
25%and cut 32 trains and three buses in order to fill a revenue shortfall
caused in part by a $33 million reduction in state subsidies.74 David Peter
Alan, an attorney from South Orange, New Jersey who is unable to drive
due to a disability, said about the cuts, This is an absolute nightmare for all
transit riders, and it must have been done with either intentional malice or
reckless disregard for the mobility of people who dont have automobiles.75
Even as the State of New Jersey slashed $33 million from NJ Transit, it was forking over $83.2 million a year
to Wall Street firms like Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, Citigroup, Morgan Stanley, Wells Fargo, UBS,
Royal Bank of Canada, Natixis, Bank of Montreal, and Deutsche Bank.76 The states payments on these toxic
swap deals would have been more than enough to restore the states funding to NJ TRANSIT and help fix the
agencys budget woes. Instead, New Jersey was forced to shift the cost to transit riders.
For Willemina Melrose, a 61-year-old grandmother of five who has been blind since her mid-30s, the
MBTAs RIDE service is literally a lifeline. She uses the RIDE to run errands, and to get to twice-weekly exercise
classes her doctor has recommended to help manage her diabetes. Melrose is unemployed, and her only source
of income is Social Security disability checks. Her fares are scheduled to double starting July 1, from $20 to $40
a week. Either theres gonna be a lot of appointments Im not gonna make or I just have to cut my grocery
shopping down and Im a diabetic and the doctors want you to eat properly, Melrose told NPR. She sees the
draconian fare hikes as fundamentally unjust, telling the MBTA board: I was working when minimum wage
was $1.85, OK? So I have put into the system full force, and this is the thanks I get? Its not right.
NEW YORK
NEW YORK CITY METRO AREA PUBLIC TRANSIT RIDER PROFILE 77
Median annual earnings for transit riders in the area:
$37,186
34%
64%
51%
The New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) has active interest rate swaps with
JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, UBS, AIG, Morgan Stanley, BNP Paribas, and Ambac that cost the MTA
$113.9 million annually.78 Another swap deal is set to be activated this

November that will cost the MTA an additional add $1.5 million a year on
top of what it is already losing.79
As of August 2011, the MTA had lost $658 million on these swap deals
since they first went into effect. These payments contributed to the drag
on the MTAs budget that in 2010 led it to lay off more than 1,000
MTA workers in New York City and eliminate 749 other positions. 80
Additionally, MTA service cuts that year which included subway and
bus service cuts as well as the reduction of cleaning services were part of the largest service reduction
package in decades. 81 Riders were forced to pay a 7.5% fare increase in 2011 and are scheduled to face
two more 7.5% fare increases in 2013 and 2015. 82 More than a third of New York area riders make
less than $25,000 a year even though they live in one of the most expensive cities in the world, home
to many of the bankers who are profiteering off these deals at MTA riders expense. Ironically, many of
those bankers are themselves MTA riders who take the subway to work every day.
The graph below shows how JPMorgan Chase, BNP Paribas North America, Inc., and UBS AG have
benefited from just one of the MTAs swap deals following the 2008 economic crash forced interest
rates to artificially low levels. Every time the red line was below the blue, the MTA lost money. As the
graph illustrates, the MTAs losses increased significantly after the Federal Reserve slashed interest rates in
the aftermath of the financial crash in the fall of 2008.
FIGURE 5: Monthly Payments on MTAs 2005B Swap Deals83
PHILADELPHIA
CITY OF PHILADELPHIA PUBLIC TRANSIT RIDER PROFILE84
$25,806
48%
69%
43%
The Philadelphia areas transit system is called the Southeastern

Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA). SEPTA is an independent
agency, but part of its funding comes from the City of Philadelphia.85
Both SEPTA and the city have interest rate swaps that together are
costing them nearly $40 million a year. SEPTA is losing $4.0 million a
year on its swap to Bank of America,86 while Philadelphias toxic swap
deals with Bank of America, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, and the
Royal Bank of Canada are costing the city $35.0 million every year.87
Furthermore, the city already paid at least $34.0 million in penalties to
Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Citigroup, and JPMorgan Chase to terminate some of these bad swap deals
in 2010.88
These hefty payments to Wall Street come at the expense of riders and taxpayers. One out of every six
dollars in SEPTAs FY 2013 capital budget goes to debt service, which includes interest rate swap payments.89
For the last three years, SEPTA has been forced to trim its capital budget by 25% due to funding shortfalls.
According to its budget proposal for FY 2013, these reduced funding levels will severely hamper SEPTAs
ability to bring the system to a state of good repair and will curtail the Authoritys ability to advance system
improvements.90 Dozens of critical improvement projects have to be postponed indefinitely or scrapped
altogether, including critical overhauls, bridge repairs, electrical substations, and station renovations.91 This
will cost the city jobs and it will severely affect SEPTAs quality of service and the long-term sustainability
of the system impacting Philadelphians for years to come.
Andrea Bell, a student living in Oakland, CA, who commutes to San Francisco for school on the bus
and BART subway, has seen the impact of service cuts firsthand. There is a bus that stops near my house
that I never get to use. The service cuts made that line almost inexistent for me! It only runs from 6:30am to 9am
and 3pm to 7pm. Therefore I have to walk half a mile to another bus line to get across town to catch the Bart.
My 15-minute bus ride just turned into about an hour overnight from the service cuts. And I still have to catch
Bart to San Francisco barely making it on time for class. Its very upsetting that the simplest trip is a serious hassle
every day! Im a college student and I cant afford to pay more money for less bus service!
SAN FRANCISCO/OAKLAND BAY AREA

BAY AREA PUBLIC TRANSIT RIDER PROFILE 92
$43,181
33%
58%
24%
The Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) is responsible for long-range planning and many
funding decisions for public transit in the nine-county Bay Area region. It oversees local operators like MUNI
in San Francisco and Alameda County Transit (AC Transit) in Oakland

and the East Bay. The MTC is losing $48.1 million a year on its swap deals
with Ambac, Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Citigroup,
Bank of New York Mellon, Morgan Stanley, and Ambac.93 It is stuck in most
of these deals until 2036 or later. By the MTCs own estimates, these deals
will cost more an additional $1.3 billion over the remaining life of these swaps.94
But while the MTC is forced to send millions to Wall Street, transit riders are
feeling the squeeze. Facing historic budget deficits between 2008 and 2010,
nearly every single bus operator cut service and raised fares, reducing transit affordability, reliability and in some
cases eliminating bus lines altogether. Some operators cut as much as 50% of service, of which little has been
restored. Across the Bay Area, 8% of all bus service was cut.95 These cuts have left entire communities stranded.
One in four transit riders in the Bay Area does not have a car and is dependent on public transit to get around.96
Ridership has fallen dramatically as a result of the cuts, averaging 55,000 fewer trips taken each day. It would
cost an estimated $72.5 million to restore the lost service with fixed route bus transit.97
FIGURE 6: Bus Service Cuts on MTC Operators (2006-2011)98
SAN JOSE
SANTA CLARA COUNTY PUBLIC TRANSIT RIDER PROFILE 99
Median annual earnings for transit riders in the county:
$26,969
48%
70%
14%
The Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) is the transit operator in Santa

Clara County, California. It is part of the larger Bay Area Metropolitan
Transportation Commission (MTC) system and serves San Jose and the South
Bay. Faced with budget deficits, the VTA has been forced to cut back on 4% of
its bus service over the past five years.100 These cuts hit low-income communities
and communities of color the hardest. Nearly half of transit riders in Santa
Clara County make less than $25,000 per year, and 70% of them are people
of color.101 One out of seven riders depends on the VTA as the only mode of
transportation.102 It would cost an estimated $7.5 million annually to reverse
these cuts and restore service to the levels from five years ago.
The VTA pays twice that amount to Wall Street banks on its toxic swap deals. The VTA is losing $13 million
annually on its swap deals with four banks: Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, and Morgan Stanley.103
Figure 7 below looks at the VTAs swap deal in connection with the Measure A 2008A bonds. The graph shows
that the deal made sense through the end of 2007, but that once the federal government started driving down
interest rates in 2008, the VTAs losses skyrocketed.
FIGURE 7: Monthly Payments on VTAs Measure A 2008A Swap Deal104
Through May 2012, Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, and Morgan Stanley have sucked $51
million out of the VTAs budget, forcing the agency to shift the costs to riders. Unless these four banks agree
to renegotiate these deals, the VTA could lose another $224 million on these swaps through 2036 if current
interest rates hold.105 That is money that would be better spent restoring bus service to South Bay riders for the
next 30 years.
WASHINGTON, DC
WASHINGTON, DC METRO AREA PUBLIC TRANSIT RIDER PROFILE106
$46,867
29%
60%
24%
The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA, or the Metro)

services the nations capital, and surrounding suburbs of Maryland and Virginia,
with an average ridership of 1.4 million daily.107 In 2010, the Metros board
approved the largest fare increase in the systems history with increases ranging
from 20% to 33% on bus and rail lines.108 People who pay in cash, which tend
to be lower income riders, were hit with the highest increases.109 Overall, people
of color account for 60% of DC transit riders; and nearly a third of DC area
workers using the transit system earned less than $25,000 a year.110 This year,
riders are facing additional increases that average 5%.111
While DC transit riders have faced repeated fare hikes, the District is making $11.1 million in annual swap
payments to JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley and Wells Fargo, three of the nations largest banks.112 The
Metro is dependent on District coffers for part of its funding. Together the CEOs of these three banks took
home $56 million in compensation in 2011,113 which could have covered more than half of $109 million DC
riders paid in fare increases last year.114
JUMPING THE TURNSTILE

As mentioned above, transit agencies and state and local governments losses on these deals are a function
of the difference between the high fixed rates governments and agencies pay to the banks and the much
lower variable rates they get in return. The variable rates are tied to an interest rate indexmost commonly,
the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) index. The lower the value of LIBOR, the lower the variable
rates received by the governments and the greater their losses on swaps. In recent months there have
been widespread reports that several banksincluding six that held swaps covered in this reportmay
have been colluding to manipulate LIBOR downward. This alleged fraud could have cost just the transit
agencies and governments covered in this report more than $92 million. Dozens of other governments and
agencies not covered in this report may have suffered losses in the billions.
The British Bankers Association, which oversees LIBOR, has called it the worlds most important
number.115 LIBOR is the basis for interest rates on most consumer loans, including credit cards, car
loans, student loans and adjustable-rate mortgages. It also serves as the benchmark rate for a global
derivatives market worth $360 trillion, of which interest rate swaps constitute the largest single segment.
Over 60% of state and local government swaps in the United States use a LIBOR-based variable rate.
A change in LIBOR of just one one-hundredth of a percentage point can mean tens of billions of dollars
in bank profits.
Financial regulators and law enforcement authorities in the U.S., the U.K., Europe, Japan and Canada have
launched investigations into the alleged collusive manipulation of LIBOR on the parts of certain major
banks.116 The U.S. Department of Justice is conducting a criminal probe into this alleged fraud.117 Several
traders have been fired or put on leave from these banks as a result.118 Fortune magazine is calling it the
Wall Street multibillion-dollar scandal no one is talking about.119
In addition to these investigations, there have been a number of lawsuits brought in U.S. federal court
over alleged LIBOR manipulation. The City of Baltimore is the lead plaintiff in a federal class-action suit
claiming that the banks colluded to manipulate LIBOR downward from August 2007 through May 2010.
As a result, the suit claims, Baltimore suffered magnified losses on its interest rate swap deals.120
From August 2007 through May 2010, all the transit agencies and governments included in this report held
swaps that are based on LIBOR. All told, they may have overpaid the banks more than $92 million because of
the banks alleged fraud.121
Losses Caused by
Alleged Fraud
Metro Area
Public Entity/Agency with Swap
Baton Rouge
City of Baton Rouge & Parish of East Baton Rouge
$0.8 million
Boston
Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA)
$2.1 million
Charlotte
City of Charlotte
$2.0 million
Chicago
State of Illinois
$5.8 million
Detroit
City of Detroit
$9.7 million
Los Angeles
Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (LACMTA)
$4.9 million
New Jersey
State of New Jersey
$14.1 million
New York City
Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA)
$16.9 million
Philadelphia
City of Philadelphia
$12.0 million
Philadelphia
Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA)
$1.6 million
San Francisco Bay Area
Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC)
$17.1 million
San Jose
Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA)
$1.9 million
Washington, DC
District of Columbia
$3.7 million
TOTAL
$92.6 million
FIGURE 8: Transit Agencies and State/Local Governments Losses Caused by Alleged LIBOR Fraud
Nineteen banks are being sued and/or have been named in

the various investigations. Six of the largest ones served as
counterparties on swaps covered in this report from August 2007
through May 2010 (indicated in bold):
Bank of America
Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ
Mizuho Financial Group

Rabobank
Barclays
Royal Bank of Canada
Citigroup
Royal Bank of Scotland
Credit Suisse
Socit Gnrale
Deutsche Bank
Sumitomo Mitsui
HBOS (part of Lloyds)
Norinchukin Bank
HSBC
UBS
JPMorgan Chase
WestLB
Lloyds
PULLING THE EMERGENCY BRAKE

Banks are pocketing more than half a billion dollars every year
off of taxpayers and riders through these toxic swap deals.
The only reason they are able to take home their hundreds of
millions is that they crashed the economy and taxpayers
bailed them out by slashing interest rates and by giving them
direct cash infusions. Now these same banks are profiteering
off the bailout and using those low rates to make a killing at
our expense.
Interest rate swap deals are supposed to be structured so that
both sides break even in the long run. Sometimes the bank
will pay more and sometimes the agency will, but in the long
view, it is supposed to balance out. However, as Figures 5
and 7 show, these deals have become so one-sided since the
bailout that it is nearly impossible for public agencies to recover
their losses. Furthermore, the Federal Reserve announced
in January 2012 that it would keep interest rates near zero
until at least late 2014,127 which will prolong the losses on these
swaps. And as if the bailout rates were not low enough already,
it appears that banks may have illegally colluded to drive rates
down further still, exacerbating the pain caused by these deals.
This LIBOR manipulation scandal

is nothing new. It is part of a larger
pattern of unethical and potentially
illegal behavior on Wall Street:
Last year, Jefferson County,
Alabama was forced to file
bankruptcy because of a
JPMorgan Chase swap deal that
resulted in local officials going
to jail and the bank paying $722
million in fines.122 Bankers paid
millions in bribes to county
officials and their friends to secure
county business. According to
Bloomberg, JPMorgan Chase
employee Charles LeCroy said
the key to landing bond deals in
Jefferson County, Alabama was
finding out whom to pay off.123
When these deals blew up, the
county went bankrupt.
The U.S. Department of Justice
and Attorneys General in several
states are investigating whether
banks illegally conspired to rig
bids on municipal derivatives
known as guaranteed investment
contracts (GICs). Bloomberg
noted in 2010, Many of the same
bankers and advisers who sold
public officials interest-rate swap
deals that backfired for taxpayers
are now subjects of the criminal
antitrust investigation involving
GICs.124 Bank of America and
JPMorgan Chase have paid
$137 million and $211 million
respectively to settle the charges.125
Bank of America even admitted
to criminal antitrust behavior in
exchange for leniency from the
Department of Justice.126
We are stuck in pre-bailout deals with post-bailout interest rates.

Banks must agree to renegotiate these swaps with the current,
post-bailout interest rate environment in mind, so that these
deals make sense again. When the banks were hemorrhaging money in the fall of 2008, we bailed them
out. Now it is time for the banks to fulfill their obligation of using the bailout to rebuild the economy by
voluntarily renegotiating these deals without assessing agencies penalties or termination fees.
Across the country, there is a chorus of officials calling on public entities to renegotiate or get out of these
swap deals:
In 2008, A. Joseph DeNucci, then the Massachusetts State Auditor, recommended that the MBTA
[c]onsider discontinuing its participation in this highly speculative interest rate derivatives market. 128
In 2009, Pennsylvania Auditor General Jack Wagner called on school districts and local governments in
the state to get out of their swaps.129
In 2010, the Los Angeles City Council unanimously passed a resolution calling on its finance department
staff to renegotiate its swaps with Bank of New York Mellon and Dexia Financial.130
Several members of the Oakland City Council have called on Goldman Sachs to renegotiate its swap
with the city.131 In an op-ed she coauthored in April 2012, Oakland City Councilmember Rebecca
Kaplan wrote, The City of Oakland will continue to negotiateand will take whatever action is
necessaryto terminate this deal.132

In the corporate world, banks renegotiate deals all the time because of changes in circumstances. No bank can
deny that there has been a change in circumstances. After all, it was the banks own recklessness and unsound
business practices that are responsible for the change. Furthermore, banks have already agreed to renegotiate
swap deals in a number of places:
The City of Richmond, CA was losing $6 million a year on its swaps with the Royal Bank of Canada.
The city got the bank to agree to renegotiate the terms of the deals, and saved $5 million a year on its
swaps.133
The City of Detroit has actually already cut deals with banks to save money on six of its swaps. While
it did not renegotiate its swaps in the traditional sense, Detroit got banks to take out offsetting swaps
on six of its deals in which the banks pay the city back a portion of its fixed rate. Detroit is saving $25
million a year through these offsetting swaps, although it continues to lose another $54 million annually
on its other swaps.134
The Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, a public-private partnership with the City and County of San
Francisco, was on the verge of bankruptcy in December 2010 due to its financial deals with JPMorgan
Chase, which included an interest rate swap and a letter of credit. A letter of credit is essentially another
form of bond insurance that public agencies are often required to carry on their variable-rate debt. After
month long negotiations, the bank agreed to a deal that saved the museum $40 million, terminated the
swap without penalties, refinanced the debt into a lower-cost fixed-rate bond, and ultimately let the
museum avoid bankruptcy.135
Furthermore, Goldman Sachs has agreed to enter into negotiations with the City of Oakland over its swap
deal,136 which is costing the city $4 million annually. According to Peralta Community College Trustee Cy
Gulassa, the Bay Area school is in discussions with Morgan Stanley regarding its swaps.137 We have seen time
and again that banks can and do voluntarily agree to renegotiate these deals.
GETTING BACK ON TRACK

Detroit bus driver Rudolph Markoe
expressed the frustration of Detroit bus
riders with the endless rounds of cutbacks
to bus service. The cuts were seeing
today are a continuation of a long round
of cuts. At the most recent public hearing
(about the service cuts), some people were
in tears, fearing for their ability to get to
and from their jobs - in fact many people
have lost their jobs. But you never really
get feedback from the school kids. They
have to catch the bus in the morning
and after school, they never come to the
hearings, but the cuts affects them. Theres
a sense of hopelessness, that theres nothing
they can do about it anymore.
Our public officials are faced with difficult choices as they try to fill
vast budget holes that grow bigger by the day as the Great Recession
wears on. But it is a mistake to balance those budgets on the backs
of transit riders and taxpayers, while bleeding away millions of
dollars a year to the same banks that caused the economic crisis.
Public transit is critical to our economic and environmental
sustainability. Buses and trains get workers to their jobs, customers
to shops, and students to schools. For millions of low-income
families, seniors, and people with disabilities, public transit is the
only means of transportation available to them. Transit expansion
and improvements also create construction jobs and help improve
the quality of our air and fight climate change by reducing carbon
emissions caused by traffic congestion. Investments in public transit
literally move America forward.
Swap payments to the banks, on the other hand, take us in the wrong
direction. Banks use their profits to lobby against laws that aim to
curb their abuses, to create and inflate the next economic bubble,
to find ways to avoid paying their fair share in taxes, and to pay out
billions of dollars in bonuses. Nearly 40 cents of every dollar that
big Wall Street banks take in go straight towards bankers bonus
and compensation pools, helping deepen the income inequality
between the 99% and the 1% in this country.138 That means that
more than $200 million of the half a billion dollars that transit
agencies and the governments that fund them are paying banks on
these toxic swap deals will go straight towards banker pay. That is
a direct transfer of wealth from taxpayers and riders to the bankers
that crashed our economy.
It is time to get our priorities in order. We cannot keep robbing
working families to pay the rich bankers on Wall Street. We need to
make banks renegotiate these toxic interest rate swap deals to save
taxpayers and riders more than half a billion dollars annually. This
would be a first and important step in renegotiating our state and
local governments relationship with Wall Street and getting our
economy back on track.
ENDNOTES
1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

Facts at a Glance. American Public Transportation Association. Accessed 27 May 2012.

http://www.publictransportation.org/news/facts/Pages/default.aspx.
Making a Wise Investment in Public Transportation. American Public Transportation Association. Accessed 27
May 2012. http://www.publictransportation.org/community/media/coverage/print/Pages/SampleLocalOpEd.aspx.
Nearly 80 Percent of Public Transit Systems Forced to Implement Fare Increases or Service Cuts Due to Flat or
Decreased Local and State Funding. American Public Transportation Association. 17 Aug 2011.
http://www.apta.com/mediacenter/pressreleases/2011/Pages/110817_ServiceCut_Survey.aspx.
Prins, Nomi and Krisztina Ugrin. Bailout Tally Report. 01 Oct 2011. Page 3.
http://www.nomiprins.com/storage/bailouttallyoct2011CLEAN%20NO%20FORMULAS.pdf
Historical Changes of the Target Federal Funds and Discount Rates, 1971 to present. Federal Reserve Bank
of New York. Accessed 27 May 2012. http://www.newyorkfed.org/markets/statistics/dlyrates/fedrate.html.
Nasiripour, Shahien. Largest Banks Likely Profited By Borrowing From Federal Reserve, lending
To Federal Government. Huffington Post. 26 Apr 2011.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/26/fed-lending-helped-wall-street_n_853884.html.
Based on analysis of prevailing interest rates as of 02 May 2012 and details on interest rate swap deals found
in state and local governments and transit agencies comprehensive annual financial reports and/or audited
financial statements.
Nasiripour, Shahien. Largest Banks Likely Profited By Borrowing From Federal Reserve, lending
To Federal Government. Huffington Post. 26 Apr 2011.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/26/fed-lending-helped-wall-street_n_853884.html.
9
Based on analysis of historical interest rates and details on the interest rate swap deal found in the

Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authoritys 2011 Audited Financial Statements
(http://emma.msrb.org/ER563810-ER437340-ER839695.pdf ), pages 23-24. Net swap payments are based on

monthly calculations to allow for comparison with changes in the Federal Funds Rate.
10 Based on analysis of prevailing interest rates as of 02 May 2012 and details on interest rate swap deals found


11 Auditor General Wagner Says Schools, Local Governments Profiting From Swaps are Still Gambling with

Taxpayer Money. Pennsylvania Department of the Auditor General. 25 Nov 2009.

http://www.auditorgen.state.pa.us/Department/Press/WagnerSaysSchoolsLocGovsProfitFrSwapsStillGambling.html.
12 Ibid.
13 Roper, Barbara. CFTCs Message to Municipalities: Caveat Emptor. Huffington Post. 26 Jan 2012.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/barbara-roper/cftcs-message-to-municipalities_b_1229165.html.
14 Ibid.


16 U.S. Census, Means of Transportation to Work by Selected Characteristics (2010 American Community Survey

1-Year Estimates), for the United States.

1-Year Estimates), for the East Baton Rouge Parish.
18 About CATS. Capital Area Transit System. Accessed 27 May 2012. http://www.brcats.com/AboutUs.asp.
19 Our Views: Congratulations for new CATS. The Advocate. 01 May 2012.

http://theadvocate.com/news/opinion/2657434-123/our-views-congratulations-for-new.
20 Presentation on Comprehensive Transit Reform. Together Baton Rouge. Feb 2012.

http://www.slideshare.net/bagertjr/tbr-presentation-on-transit-reform-2012.
21 Cunningham-Cook, Matthew. Union, Riders Chase a Better Bus System. Labor Notes. 24 Apr 2012.

http://labornotes.org/2012/04/union-riders-chase-better-bus-system.
http://labornotes.org/2012/04/union-riders-chase-better-bus-system
22 Our Views: Congratulations for new CATS. The Advocate. 01 May 2012.

http://theadvocate.com/news/opinion/2657434-123/our-views-congratulations-for-new.
23

Annual Operating Budget for the Year Beginning January 1, 2012. The Consolidated Government of the City
of Baton Rouge and Parish of East Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Page 95.
http://brgov.com/dept/finance/pdf/2012%20Budget/2012%20City-Parish%20Budget.pdf.
24 Based on analysis of prevailing interest rates as of 02 May 2012 and details on interest rate swap deals found in

the City of Baton Rouge and East Baton Rouge Parishs 2010 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report
(http://www.ci.baton-rouge.la.us/dept/finance/pdf/2010%20CAFR/CAFR%202010%20Complete.pdf ),

page 120.

1-Year Estimates), for the City of Boston.
26 Ridership and Service Statistics, Thirteenth Edition. Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority. 2010. Page 1.

http://www.mbta.com/uploadedfiles/documents/Bluebook 2010.pdf.
27 MBTA Position Paper. A Better City (ABC). February 2012. Page 5.

http://abettercity.org/docs/February 2012 - MBTA Position Paper.pdf.
28 Ridership and Service Statistics, Thirteenth Edition. Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority. 2010. Page21.

http://www.mbta.com/uploadedfiles/documents/Bluebook 2010.pdf.

30 Fare and Service Change Information Booklet. Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority. 2012. Page 6.

http://www.mbta.com/uploadedfiles/About_the_T/Fare_Proposals_2012/MC12149 Fare Increase Booklet_v7.pdf.

32 Monahan, John J. MBTA suggests 29% rail fare hike. Worcester Telegram & Gazette. 29 March 2012.

http://www.telegram.com/article/20120329/NEWS/103299803.
33 Fare and Service Change Information Booklet. Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority. 2012. Pages 10-20.

http://www.mbta.com/uploadedfiles/About_the_T/Fare_Proposals_2012/MC12149 Fare Increase Booklet_v7.pdf.

the MBTAs 2011 Audited Financial Statements (http://mbta.com/uploadedfiles/About_the_T/Financials/

MBTA%20Audited%20Financial%20Statements%20June%2030%202011-FINAL.pdf ), page 25. Total does

not include a reverse swap or the CPI-based swaps, for which the precise payment formulas where not disclosed in

the MBTAs statements.
35 Financial Statements and Required Supplementary Information, June 30, 2011 and 2010. Massachusetts Bay

Transportation Authority. 30 Jun 2011. Pages 26-29. http://www.mbta.com/uploadedfiles/About_the_T/

Financials/MBTA%20Audited%20Financial%20Statements%20June%2030%202011-FINAL.pdf. Assumes

interest rates in effect as of 30 Jun 2011 remain in effect over the remaining life of these deals.
36 Potential MBTA Fare Increase and Service Changes in 2012: Scenario 3 Impact Analysis. Central Transportation

Planning Staff. 28 Mar 2012. Page 27. http://www.mbta.com/uploadedfiles/About_the_T/Fare_Proposals_2012/

CTPSPreFareIncImpacts2012_Scn3.pdf.
37 DeNucci, A. Joseph. Independent State Auditors Report on Certain Activities of the Massachusetts Bay

Transportation Authority, July 1, 2000 to December 31, 2005. 29 Jan 2008. Page 8.

http://www.mass.gov/sao/Audit%20Reports/2008/200405833a2.pdf.
38 Analysis of MBTA Audited Financial Statements.

5-Year Estimates), for the City of Charlotte.
40 About the Charlotte Area Transit System. City of Charlotte website. Accessed on 27 May 2012.

http://charmeck.org/city/charlotte/cats/about/Pages/default.aspx.
41 CATS Financial Information.: City of Charlotte website. Accessed on 27 May 2012.

http://charmeck.org/city/charlotte/cats/about/budget/Pages/default.aspx.
42 Harrison, Steve. Bus, rail fare hike sought. Charlotte Observer. 28 Jan 2012.

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2012/01/28/2965822/bus-rail-fare-hike-sought.html.

5-Year Estimates), for the City of Charlotte.

the City of Charlottes 2011 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (http://charmeck.org/city/charlotte/

Finance/Documents/FY11%20CAFR.pdf ), page 90.

1-Year Estimates), for the City of Chicago.
46 CTA Overview. Chicago Transit Authority website. Accessed on 27 May 2012.

http://www.transitchicago.com/about/overview.aspx.

1-Year Estimates), for the City of Chicago.
48 Hilkevitch, Jon. CTA cuts 54 management jobs, with more budget trims likely. Chicago Tribune. 27 Jun 2011.

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2011-06-27/news/ct-met-cta-cuts-0628-20110627_1_cta-cuts-cta-budget-cta
president-forrest-claypool.
49 Spielman, Fran. Emanuel, Clinton announce $1.7 billion trust for Chicago projects. Chicago Sun-Times. 01

Mar 2012. http://www.suntimes.com/news/politics/10986386-418/emanuel-clinton-announce-creation-of-17
billion-trust-to-build-chicago-infrastructure.html; Joravsky, Ben. The trust fund mayor. Chicago Reader. 11 Apr

2012. http://www.chicagoreader.com/gyrobase/the-trust-fund-mayor/Content?oid=6036196&storyPage=1.

the State of Illinoiss 2010 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report
(http://www.ioc.state.il.us/?LinkServID=083E57BA-1CC1-DE6E-2F48783E3F984EF7&showmeta=0),

pages 107 and 116.
51 Based on information obtained through Freedom of Information Act Requests to the Governors Office of

Management and Budget, State Toll Highway Authority, University of Illinois, and the Illinois Housing

Development Authority.
52 Baar Topinka, Judy. Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 2010. State of Illinois

Comptroller. Pages 109 and 119. http://www.ioc.state.il.us/?LinkServID=083E57BA-1CC1-DE6E
2F48783E3F984EF7&showmeta=0.

1-Year Estimates), for the City of Detroit.
54 Francis, Theo, Ben Levinsohn, Christopher Palmeri, and Jessica Silver-Greenberg. Wall Street Plays
Hardball. BusinessWeek. 18 Nov 2009. http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/09_48/

b4157034230199.htm?chan=magazine+channel_top+stories
55 Ibid.
56 Ibid.
57 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report for the Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 2011. City of Detroit. Page 113.

http://www.detroitmi.gov/Portals/0/docs/finance/CAFR/2011%20Detroit%20CAFR%20Final.pdf.

the City of Detroits 2011 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (http://www.detroitmi.gov/Portals/0/docs/

finance/CAFR/2011%20Detroit%20CAFR%20Final.pdf ), page 113. Total does not include CPI-based swaps,

for which the payment formulas were not disclosed in the citys filing.
59 Long, Cate. Detroits derivatives slip through the net. Reuters. 17 Apr 2012.

http://blogs.reuters.com/muniland/2012/04/18/detroit.
60 Neavling, Steve and Matt Helms. Mayor Bing expected to unveil plan to privatize Detroit bus, lighting systems.

Detroit Free-Press. 16 Nov 2011. http://www.freep.com/article/20111116/NEWS01/111160429/Mayor-Bing
expected-unveil-plan-privatize-Detroit-bus-lighting-systems.
61 Sands, David. More DDOT Bus Service Changes Coming Under 415 Plan, Riders Not Convinced. Huffington
Post. 05 Apr 2012. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/05/ddot-holds-hearing-on-ser_n_1406376.html.

1-Year Estimates), for the City of Detroit.

1-Year Estimates), for Los Angeles County.
64 Public Transportation Ridership Report, Fourth Quarter 2011. American Public Transportation Association.

24 Feb 2012. http://www.apta.com/resources/statistics/Documents/Ridership/2011-q4-ridership-APTA.pdf.
65 Transit Civil Rights and Economic Survival in Los Angeles. Oct 2011. Pages 4 and 8.

http://www.thestrategycenter.org/sites/www.thestrategycenter.org/files/MTA_civil_rights_report_11-11-11.pdf.

1-Year Estimates), for Los Angeles County.
67 Ibid.
68 Carter, Dorval R., Jr., and Linda C. Ford. Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority Final Title VI

Determination Memorandum. Federal Transit Administration, U.S. Department of Transportation. 23 Apr 2012.

Page 1. https://www.box.com/s/26ff16a1039d734a78f8.

the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authoritys Financial Statements and Required Supplementary

Information dated June 30, 2011 (http://www.metro.net/media/uploads/FY11_Financial_Statements.pdf ), page 74.
70 Financial Statements and Required Supplementary Information, June 30, 2011. Los Angeles County Metropolitan

Transportation Authority. Page 75. http://www.metro.net/media/uploads/FY11_Financial_Statements.pdf.
71 Bloomekatz, Ari. MTA targets bus line serving Westside workers who live in South L.A. Los Angeles Times. 27

Feb 2012. http://articles.latimes.com/2012/feb/27/local/la-me-bus-cuts-20120227.
72 Financial Statements and Required Supplementary Information, June 30, 2011. Los Angeles County Metropolitan

Transportation Authority. Pages 74-75. http://www.metro.net/media/uploads/FY11_Financial_Statements.pdf.

1-Year Estimates), for the State of New Jersey.
74 Frassinelli, Mike. NJ Transits record 25 percent fare hike troubles those who rely on buses, trains. The Star-Ledger.

05 Mar 2010. http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2010/03/nj_transits_record_25_percent.html.
75 Ibid.

in the State of New Jerseys 2011 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (http://www.state.nj.us/treasury/omb/

publications/11cafr/pdf/finstats.pdf ), page 77.

1-Year Estimates), for the New York City Metropolitan Statistical Area.
78 Based on analysis of prevailing interest rates as of 02 May 2012 and details on interest rate swap deals found in the

Metropolitan Transportation Authoritys Consolidated Financial Statements for the period ended September 30, 2011
(http://mta.info/mta/budget/pdf/MTA_Q3_2011_Review_Report.pdf ), pages 72-76.
79 Consolidated Financial Statements as of and for the Period Ended September 30, 2011. Metropolitan Transportation

Authority. Page 72. http://mta.info/mta/budget/pdf/MTA_Q3_2011_Review_Report.pdf.
80 PEG Monitoring Report, 4th Quarter 2010. Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

MTA New York City Transit, PEG Monitoring Report, 4th Quarter 2010.
81 DiNapoli, Thomas P. Financial Outlook for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. State of New York

Comptroller. Sep 2011. Page 3. http://www.osc.state.ny.us/reports/mta/mta-rpt-11-2012.pdf.
82 Ibid. Page 2.
83 Based on analysis of historical interest rates and details on the interest rate swap deal found in the Metropolitan

Transportation Authoritys Consolidated Financial Statements for the period ended September 30, 2011
(http://mta.info/mta/budget/pdf/MTA_Q3_2011_Review_Report.pdf ), page 74.

1-Year Estimates), for the City of Philadelphia.
85 Fiscal Year 2013 Operating Budget Proposal and Fiscal Years 2014 to 2018 Financial Projections. Southeastern

Pennsylvania Transportation Authority. Page 48. http://www.septa.org/reports/pdf/opbudget13.pdf.

SEPTAs 2011 Audited Financial Statements (http://emma.msrb.org/ER563810-ER437340-ER839695.pdf ),

pages 23-24.

City of Philadelphias 2011 Comprehensive Annual Report (http://emma.msrb.org/EP597636-EP467675
EP867786.pdf ), pages 54, 67, and 78. Total does not include investment swaps or the school districts swaps.
88 Comprehensive Annual Report, Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 2011. City of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Pages 73 and
78. http://emma.msrb.org/EP597636-EP467675-EP867786.pdf.
89 Fiscal Year 2013 Capital Budget and Fiscal Years 2013-2014 Capital Program Proposal. Southeastern Pennsylvania

Transportation Authority. Page 34. http://septa.org/reports/pdf/budget-proposal-cb13.pdf.
90 Ibid. Page 24.
91 SEPTA Releases Proposed Fiscal Year 2013 Capital Budget. Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority.

15 Mar 2012. http://www.septa.org/media/releases/2012/03-15.html.

1-Year Estimates), for the San Francisco Metropolitan Statistical Area.
93 Based on the Metropolitan Transportation Commissions own projections of its net payments on the swap deals in

its 2010 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (http://www.mtc.ca.gov/library/CAFR/CAFR_2010.pdf ),

pages 66-67. Total does not include 4 reverse swaps that the MTC has entered into.
94

95
96

97

98
Comprehensive Annual Financial Report for the Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 2010. Metropolitan Transportation
Commission. Pages 66-67. http://www.mtc.ca.gov/library/CAFR/CAFR_2010.pdf.
Based on data from the National Transit Database.
U.S. Census, Means of Transportation to Work by Selected Characteristics (2010 American Community Survey
1-Year Estimates), for the San Francisco Metropolitan Statistical Area.
Based primarily on data from the National Transit Database (2006-2010) and the Statistical Summary of Bay Area
Transit Operators (for Benecia Breeze NTD Data unavailable after 2008). The magnitude of service cuts was
analyzed by calculating the extremity of cuts individually for each operator (between the highest number of
service hours in the past five years and the most recently reported number of revenue vehicle hours). Where
available, data past 2010 was included in the analysis. This additional data was self-reported through direct
contact with operators or published through budget reports. The cost to restore bus service levels to the highest
LOS in the past five years is an upper-end estimate since it is based on the fully allocated cost per revenue
vehicle hour a cost which varies by operator and is higher than the marginal cost per hour that operators tend to
use in estimating the cost of additional hours.
Based on data from the National Transit Database. The graph shows the percent decrease in bus service from
highest level of service (Revenue Vehicle Hours) since 2006. Most operators peaked in service in FY 2008/2009.
1-Year Estimates), for Santa Clara County.
100 Based on data from the National Transit Database.
1-Year Estimates), for Santa Clara County.
102 Ibid.
Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authoritys 2011 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (http://www.vta.org/
inside/investor/financial/statements/2011_CAFR.pdf ), page 2-51.
104 Based on analysis of historical interest rates and details on the interest rate swap deal found in the Santa Clara
Valley Transportation Authoritys 2011 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (http://www.vta.org/inside/
investor/financial/statements/2011_CAFR.pdf ), page 2-51.
105 Ibid.
1-Year Estimates), for the Washington, DC Metropolitan Statistical Area.
107 Public Transportation Ridership Report, Fourth Quarter 2011. American Public Transportation Association. 24
Feb 2012. http://www.apta.com/resources/statistics/Documents/Ridership/2011-q4-ridership-APTA.pdf.
108 Scott Tyson, Ann and Lisa Rein. Metro approves broad fare increase, peak-use surcharges. Washington Post. 28
May 2010. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/27/AR2010052704840.html.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/27/AR2010052704840.html.
109 Title VI Equity Evaluation. Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority. Jun 2010. Page 3. http://www.
wmata.com/about_metro/docs/Title_VI_Equity%20_Evaluation_of_FY2011_Budget.pdf.
1-Year Estimates), for the Washington, DC Metropolitan Statistical Area.
111 Hedgpeth, Dana. Metro riders may face smaller fare hike. Washington Post. 07 Apr 2012. http://www.
washingtonpost.com/local/trafficandcommuting/metro-riders-may-face-smaller-fare-hike/2012/04/07/
gIQA2NEr2S_story.html.
112 Based on the District of Columbias own projections of its net payments on the swap deals in its 2011 Comprehensive
Annual Financial Report (http://cfo.dc.gov/cfo/frames.asp?doc=/cfo/lib/cfo/cafr/2011/cafr_2011.pdf), page 103.
113 Based on data in the SEC Form DEF14A filings for JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley and Wells Fargo, as
compiled by CapitalIQ.
114 Scott Tyson, Ann and Lisa Rein. Metro approves broad fare increase, peak-use surcharges. Washington Post. 28
May 2010. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/27/AR2010052704840.html.
115 BBA LIBOR: The worlds most important number now tweets daily. British Bankers Association. 21 May 2009.
http://www.bbalibor.com/news-releases/bba-libor-the-worlds-most-important-number-now-tweets-daily.
116 Slater, Steve. Banks served Libor subpoenas. The Globe and Mail. 17 Mar 2011. http://www.theglobeandmail.
com/globe-investor/banks-served-libor-subpoenas/article1945230/; and Murphy, Megan, Brooke Masters, and
Caroline Binham. Probe reveals scale of Libor abuse. Financial Times. 09 Feb 2012. http://www.ft.com/intl/
cms/s/0/5ae1f598-5264-11e1-a155-00144feabdc0.html.
117 Mollenkamp, Carrick. Exclusive: U.S. conducting criminal Libor probe. Reuters. 29 Feb 2012. http://www.
reuters.com/article/2012/02/29/us-libor-probe-idUSTRE81R1ZG20120229.
118 Murphy, Megan, Brooke Masters, and Caroline Binham. Prove reveals scale of Libor abuse. Financial Times. 09
Feb 2012. http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/5ae1f598-5264-11e1-a155-00144feabdc0.html.
119 Gandel, Stephen. The Wall Street multibillion-dollar scandal no one is talking about. FORTUNE. 23 Mar 2012.
http://finance.fortune.cnn.com/2012/03/23/the-wall-street-multibillion-scandal-no-one-is-talking-about.
120 Mayor and City Council of Baltimore and City of New Britain Firefighters and Police Benefit Fund v. Credit Suisse
Group, et al. Consolidated Amended Complaint. 30 Apr 2012. Page 5. http://dockets.justia.com/docket/newyork/nysdce/1:2011md02262/383368.
121 The Consolidated Amended Complaint for Mayor and City Council of Baltimore and City of New Britain
Firefighters and Police Benefit Fund v. Credit Suisse Group, et al contains a table listing the average spread between
the rates submitted by the banks on the U.S. Dollar LIBOR panel and the Federal Reserve Eurodollar Deposit
Rate, from August 8, 2007, through May 17, 2010. Across 16 banks, the average spread was -0.29%. (In Re:
Libor-Based Financial Instruments Antitrust Litigation, Consolidated Amended Complaint [Document #130],
Paragraph 84, pages 43-44.) When applied to the total notional value of all the swaps outstanding during this
period$11.3 billionthe result is a little over $33 million per year. When extended to the full period of
collusive manipulation alleged in the lawsuit 2.775 360-day years the result is $92.6 million.
122 Williams Walsh, Mary. In Alabama, a County That Fell Off the Financial Cliff. New York Times. 18 Feb
2012. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/19/business/jefferson-county-ala-falls-off-the-bankruptcy-cliff.html?_
r=2&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1329858074-27pGBT68+KEcfQa5EpEmHw.
123 Selway, William and Martin Z. Braun. JPMorgan Proves Bond Deal Death In Jefferson County No Bar To New
Business. Bloomberg. 12 Aug 2011. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-08-12/jpmorgan-proves-bond-dealdeath-in-jefferson-county-no-bar-to-new-business.html.
124 Braun, Martin Z. and William Selway. Conspiracy of Banks Rigging States Came With Crash. Bloomberg. 18
May 2010. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-05-18/conspiracy-of-banks-rigging-state-finance-convergedwith-mortgage-meltdown.html.
125 Wyatt, Edward. Bank of America Unit Settles Complaint on Municipal Bonds. New York Times. 07 Dec 2010.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/08/business/08muni.html; and Dash, Eric. JPMorgan Settles Bond BidRigging Case for $211 Million. New York Times. 07 Jun 2011. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/08/business/
jpmorgan-settles-bond-bid-rigging-case-for-211-million.html.
126 City of Oakland v. AIG Financial Products, et al. Joint Second Amended Class Complaint. 15 Dec 2009. Page 3.
127 Kim, Susanna. Fed Extends Low Interest Rates Through 2014. ABC News. 25 Jan 2012. http://abcnews.go.com/
blogs/business/2012/01/fed-extends-low-interest-rates-through-2014.
128 DeNucci, A. Joseph. Independent State Auditors Report on Certain Activities of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation
Authority, July 1, 2000 to December 31, 2005. 29 Jan 2008. Page 14. http://www.mass.gov/sao/Audit%20
Reports/2008/200405833a2.pdf.
129 Auditor General Wagner Says Schools, Local Governments Profiting From Swaps are Still Gambling with
Taxpayer Money. Pennsylvania Department of the Auditor General. 25 Nov 2009. http://www.auditorgen.state.
pa.us/Department/Press/WagnerSaysSchoolsLocGovsProfitFrSwapsStillGambling.html
130 Zahniser, David. L.A. wants to quit or alter two bank deals. Los Angeles Times. 10 Mar 2010. http://www.
latimes.com/news/local/la-me-rate-swaps10-2010mar10,0,5860317.story.
131 Phillips, Ryan. Councilmembers discuss ways to get out of bond debt deal with Goldman Sachs. Oakland North.
09 May 2012. http://oaklandnorth.net/2012/05/09/councilmembers-discuss-ways-to-get-out-of-bond-debt-dealwith-goldman-sachs.
132 Buford, Rev. Daniel and Councilmember Rebecca Kaplan. Op-Ed: Is Goldman Sachs Holding Oakland
Hostage? Oakland Post. 28 Apr 2012. http://www.postnewsgroup.com/publishedcontent/2012/04/28/isgoldman-sachs-holding-oakland-hostage.
133 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report for the Year Ended June 30, 2010. City of Richmond, California. Pages 79,
81, and 83. http://www.ci.richmond.ca.us/DocumentView.aspx?DID=6622; and Comprehensive Annual Financial
Report for the Year Ended June 30, 2009. City of Richmond, California. Page 85. http://www.ci.richmond.ca.us/
DocumentView.aspx?DID=5386.
134 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report for the Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 2011. City of Detroit. Page 113. http://
www.detroitmi.gov/Portals/0/docs/finance/CAFR/2011%20Detroit%20CAFR%20Final.pdf.
135 Mayor Newsom, City Attorney Herrera, City Controller Ben Rosenfield, President Chiu and Asian Art Museum
Foundation Announce Proposal to Restructure Foundations Debt. Asian Art Museum of San Francisco. 06
Jan 2011. http://www.asianart.org/pressroom/debtrestructure.htm; and Harmanci, Reyhan. Asian Art Museum
Avoids Bankruptcy. The Bay Citizen. 06 Jan 2011. http://www.baycitizen.org/blogs/pulse-of-the-bay/asian-artmuseum-avoids-bankruptcy.
136 Memorandum from Scott P. Johnson from the Oakland City Administrators Office to Mayor Jean Quan and the
Oakland City Council regarding Questions on Goldman Sachs Swap. 02 Mar 2012. Page 2. http://www.scribd.
com/doc/84552915/Oakland-Memo-Scott-Johnson-to-City-Council-re-Questions-on-Goldman-Sachs-RateSwap.
137 Leckie, Jon. Peralta college district braces for more cuts. Laney Tower. 16 Feb 2012. http://www.laneytower.com/
news/peralta-college-district-braces-for-more-cuts-1.2784752#.T2ODDXmHOSp.
138 Pulling Back the Curtain: The 1% Behind the 2011 Big Bank Bonuses. New Bottom Line. Jan 2012. Page 5. http://
d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/bac/pages/456/attachments/original/PullingBacktheCurtainReport.pdf.

Riding The Gravy Train

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REFUND TRANSIT COALITION

Refund Transit Coalition is a group of transit advocates, workers

OFF THE RAILS.

THROWING RIDERS UNDER THE BUS.

JUMPING THE TURNSTILE.

PULLING THE EMERGENCY BRAKE.

GETTING BACK ON TRACK.

RIDING THE GRAVY TRAIN

Tamika Williams is a mother and

An investment in public transit is an investment in the American

discounts no longer apply. Those among us who can

OFF THE RAILS

FIGURE 1: The Structure of an Interest Rate Swap Deal

rates fell really low, then they could actually end

Nationally, researchers have identified approximately 1,100

THROWING RIDERS UNDER THE BUS

NATIONAL PUBLIC TRANSIT RIDER PROFILE16

Governments and public agencies

Related Transit Agency

Bank of America, Citigroup

Capital Area Transit System (CATS)

Massachusetts Bay Transportation

Massachusetts Bay Transportation

Charlotte Area Transit System (CATS)

AIG, Bank of America

Chicago Transit Authority (CTA)

Los Angeles County Metropolitan

New Jersey Transit

Public Entity/Agency with Swap

City of Baton Rouge & Parish

Los Angeles County Metropolitan

State of New Jersey

New York City

Ambac, Bank of America

Santa Clara Valley Transportation

Bank of America, Citigroup

Santa Clara Valley Transportation

Washington Metropolitan Area

Percentage of riders making below $25,000 annually:

Percentage of riders who are African-American:

Percentage of riders without a car:

Percentage of riders making below $25,000 annually:

Percentage of riders who are people of color:

Percentage of riders without a car:

Percentage of riders making below $25,000 annually:

Percentage of riders who are people of color:

Percentage of riders without a car:

The Charlotte Area Transit System (CATS) is managed by the City of

Percentage of riders making below $25,000 annually:

Percentage of riders who are people of color:

Percentage of riders without a car:

Percentage of riders making below $25,000 annually:

Percentage of riders who are African-American:

Percentage of riders without a car:

Percentage of riders making below $25,000 annually:

Percentage of riders who are people of color:

Percentage of riders without a car:

FIGURE 4: The Details of LACMTAs Swap Deals72

Percentage of riders making below $25,000 annually: