I don't think it's a "high ball" tactic at all.

TriMet knows that it can get away cutting bus lines, because TriMet, as well as all of the local governments see bus service as a non-issue. Cut a rail line, and it becomes a political liability. TriMet makes a big deal about each and every rail line (how many of you folks out in Gresham and in North Portland see the decals on Trimet buses and trains that exclaim "WES WORKS!" As a Tigard resident who theoretically can benefit from WES...WES don't work.) So of course when these service cutbacks occur (which are almost always due to TriMet's own financial mismanagement, over-extension of rail lines, borrowing costs, construction costs, bad fuel hedges - in other words, things that are directly attributable to TriMet management and not other causes), the bus system gets axed first, and MAX and WES service are generally spared. And TriMet continues to give away $3 million a year to the City of Portland for the Streetcar which is supposed to be a City service, not a TriMet service.

Of course, TriMet makes their statement, people finally bitch about the bus system (and how TriMet ignores it), and then TriMet relents and agrees to less drastic cuts (realizing, for a short while, that people actually care about their bus service). Six-nine months later, TriMet forgets and starts proposing bus cutbacks again.

Highball Tactics would be TriMet proposing to cut a MAX line in an attempt to gain more funding, with no real intent to cutting a MAX line. That isn't the case - TriMet would be perfectly happy to eliminate most, if not all, bus service, and become a rail transit agency only. So when TriMet threatens to cut a bus line, most of the time the decision is already made but TriMet has to comply with state and federal laws requiring public input...so maybe TriMet is playing a little hardball by including routes that aren't really intended to be cut, so TriMet can "reverse its decision" and not cut them, even though there was no real intent to do so, while continuing to cut the lines it fully wants - and has already decided - to.