For the first time in eight years, RTA is seriously considering putting a sales tax levy on the ballot to save the agency from financial straits and bolster service in decades to come.
RTA’s board mulled over the issue at a special meeting Tuesday morning where its ten members entertained presentations from staff on what a 0.25% or 0.5% Cuyahoga County sales tax increase could mean for the transit agency’s bottom line at a time when it’s faced considerable budget issues and recent reductions in service.
They’ll decide in the coming months whether to put the issue before voters later this year or next.
Without it, more financial disaster awaits.
RTA would have to spend the next three years juggling $17 million of reductions, including slashing 10 bus routes, minimizing service on 27 others and reducing the Green Line to what might be a mere novelty.
“The result would be a less useful transit network,” Joel Freilich, RTA’s director of service management, said during his presentation at RTA’s downtown headquarters on Tuesday morning.
“It’s much harder to make connections with less frequent service,” he said. “And if you can’t make connections? To use the automobile analogy: You can drive, but you’re not allowed to turn the steering wheel.”
Currently, three-quarters of the RTA’s budget is funded from a one percent slice of Cuyahoga County’s sales tax, which stands at 8%, tied for the highest in Ohio. That one percent rate hasn’t budged since 1975.
Members RTA’s board were sure to bring that up Tuesday. Some recounted the past attempt, in July of 2018, when the board voted 8-0 to push for a sales tax hike and property tax levy, Ideastream reported. With mere weeks before the filing deadline that year, the campaign petered out.
But this year may be different, buttressed by new rail cars incoming; a new fare-capped Smartcard system; a refresh of RTA’s pay stations and its bus washes; and a bounce back of its bus ridership to pre-pandemic numbers. And a Bibb administration that has put pedestrians and public transit at the forefront of their efforts.
On Tuesday, there was much to be excited about. If voters okay a transit levy, RTA’s offerings would surge, Freilich said. 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.
And, if that 0.50 percent levy is approved, RTA would get an added $140 million in new revenue. Which could mean $25 million in improvements, including ramping up frequency of 31 of its 41 bus routes.
There aren’t many other avenues given the current situation.
“For anyone that depends on transit, this is a scary moment,” Jenna Thomas, an activist at Clevelanders for Public Transit told Scene. “These cuts could mean losing your job, eliminating access to your kids school, the isolation of our elderly neighbors.”
“I cannot overstate how detrimental it would be to the future of Cleveland and the region if we don’t solve GCRTA’s funding crisis urgently,” she added.
An urgency that the RTA knew about six years ago, when it published its weighty Strategic Plan in 2020. Among its most pressing concerns: decide “if a tax levy will assist with funding challenges.”
It’s an urgency that RTA’s board was vocal about on Tuesday, when many wondered if November was too near to create a political action committee that could wrangle enough publicity.
“All of this depends on whether or not we can get to the ballot,” Anastasia Elder said. She nodded to the proposed budget presentation on her computer screen. “So we don’t have to do all of this.”
RTA has until August 8 to make a decision on whether or not it files a levy proposal with the Board of Elections. It then goes to county voters. A simple majority—51 percent or greater saying yes—means RTA could see that funding hike next year.
The problem isn’t just timing. As the May primary showed, November’s ballot is bound to be crowded, mostly with funding asks of suburban voters. Schools in Lakewood, Solon and Strongsville are all asking county taxpayers for more of their money to fund their systems.
RTA CEO India Birdsong Terry wasn’t that fazed. The pandemic and the $450 million rail car purchase slowed the RTA down, she told Scene, but it was high time the county came together to back one of its greatest needs.
“I mean, we have 2026 mobility options with a 1975 budget,” Terry said.
“This is not an investment in the us-and-them,” she said. “It really sounds cheesy, but this is an investment in the we, because you’re really paying for everyone to have mobility.”
“This is an investment in the next 50 years of mobility,” she added.
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