RTA board members this week seemed to agree on a compromise that would put a sales tax levy on the May 2027 ballot as the transit agency seeks to close budget gaps and increase funding in future years. Board members will decide in September for sure and whether to seek a 0.25% or 0.5% hike, which would bring an additional $70 to $140 million per year.
Service cuts and administrative cost-saving efforts were undertaken this year as the agency faced a $78 million deficit.
Without the passage of a levy, RTA would be staring down tens of millions in more cuts over the next three years, its board heard in a June 23 meeting, including slashing 10 bus routes, curtailing service on 27 others and reducing the Green Line to what might be a mere novelty.
The timing of further cuts and a sense of urgency dominated the debate on when to ask voters at the polls. Some felt the November 2026 election was both too soon to build a PAC and create messaging and also already crowded with other funding questions. Others felt the transit agency couldn’t wait until November 2027 given the scale of upcoming cuts.
Thus, May 2027 is likely.
“It is not the recommendation of staff to move forward beyond that time,” RTA CEO India Birdsong-Terry said at the meeting.
“By that time, we will be in a little bit more of a pickle as far as finances” and services reductions go, she added. “We want to make sure to stave those off as early as possible.”
If voters give a green light, RTA would also increase services. Healthline buses could arrive every 10 minutes. The Green and Blue lines could travel all the way to the airport. RTA could replace shelters and stops and install real-time information screens comparable to those in San Francisco and Portland, Ore. Park and Ride routes in North Olmsted and Westlake would come online again.
But time will be of the essence.
“This conversation should have happened 18 months ago,” board member Shanelle Smith-Wigham said. “We are well behind the 8-ball. And I definitely don’t think it’s fair to our clients, our communities, those who work for RTA, to wait any longer.”
The board’s set to make a decision in September on whether or not May 4 is the right date to go to the polls.
“We have long time been looked at as a social service that somehow is funded by the financial fairies that sprinkle money in our budget books,” Birdsong-Terry said. “And that’s not the case.”
“We need public support on this,” she added. “We need leaders’ support on this.”
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