BRACE YOURSELF: TriMet unveiled its proposed $17 million budget cuts last Wednesday, February 8, and it ain’t pretty.
The proposed cuts (see box below) slice service in several ways, but the most controversial are a 19 percent fare hike and a policy change to make tickets good only one way, rather than round-trip. That switch would make TriMet $3 million more a year, but also cost $1.25 million to implement the necessary new transfer-printing technology on buses.
“I’m really concerned,” says Mara Gross, policy director for Coalition for a Livable Future. “This will have a huge impact on people who use transit service the most, especially if this is the new normal.”
Much of the budget crisis stems from low payroll tax revenues (thanks, recession) and the rising cost of health care benefits (TriMet spends roughly $17,000 on health care for every union employee every year). TriMet is not currently looking at any legislative fixes to the mess, instead just doing less with its shrinking pot of money.
Portland’s local public transit crisis is part of a national trend. Fifty-one percent of transit agencies across the country cut service or increased fares (or both) last year. And 83 percent saw state funding decrease or flatline, according to the American Public Transit Association.
This week, two versions of the federal transportation bill go to a vote in the House and Senate. The Republican-written House version has caused an uproar over its harsh calls to end all federal bike and pedestrian spending and nix dedicated federal funding for transit projects. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, also a Republican, called it “the worst transportation bill I’ve ever seen during 35 years of public service.”

“The House bill is unequivocally horrible,” says Chris Rall, the Oregon organizer for nonprofit Transportation for America, noting that it’s the first time a transportation bill has been penned entirely by one party. “Every single transportation bill before this, since Eisenhower, has been created by both sides.”
TriMet received $42 million in federal funds last year, but is banking on getting $4 million less this year.
TriMet spokeswoman Mary Fetsch stresses that the agency is projecting cuts ranging from $12-17 million, mostly based on the result of a union negotiation that was delayed until May.
“We have to go with our worst-case scenario moving forward,” says Fetsch. However, if TriMet winds up not cutting as deeply as expected, Fetsch says, “Service is our highest priority.”
Jon Ostar, director of public transit riders advocacy group OPAL PDX, says TriMet is using the political situation to over-cut: “The federal money issue is just conjecture; it’s changing by the minute. They’re using the uncertainty in Washington, DC, and their dispute with the union to make these changes they’ve been wanting to make for a long time.”
But Ostar also believes TriMet’s entire cuts proposal is based on “flawed analysis.” For the past two years, Ostar notes, TriMet’s number crunchers have underestimated the amount of money the agency would get from state taxes. In the 2011 fiscal year, TriMet underestimated receipts by $7.7 million and in the current fiscal year, has underestimated receipts by $3.6 million.
“It’s irresponsible to make substantial changes to the entire fare structure,” Ostar says, “based on economic forecasting that doesn’t pencil out.”
TRIMET QUICK CUTS:
• Raise the cheapest fare to $2.50 and eliminate round-trip fares
• Reduce MAX frequency to every 20 minutes, except during rush hour
• Sell ads on TriMet TransitTracker
• Kill the Free Rail Zone
• Cut or reduce service on 14 bus lines
• Stop TriMet subsidy of free passes for Portland students
• Slash Portland Streetcar funding by $400,000
• Downsize LIFT service available for people with disabilities
“In the 2011 fiscal year, TriMet underestimated receipts by $7.7 million and in the current fiscal year, has underestimated receipts by $3.6 million.”
where is that money? did anyone ask trimet where it went? did it go to fund the milwaukie line?
trimet may have little choice than cutting some service and/or adjusting fares but they are also doing almost nothing about trimming ranks away from the front lines (the employees doing work directly involved in providing service). is it unfair to expect them to try and do as much as possible before cutting service and raising fares?
trimet keeps saying they have cut “200 positions” already but what does that actually mean? who or what were the 200? trimet cut service in 2010 and 2009. how many of the “eliminated 200 staff positions” were union employees providing services to customers how many were non-union “administrative staff”.
for instance, trimet’s marketing department budget is always more than $4 million ( I am no accountant, see page 75 – http://trimet.org/pdfs/publications/fy12-adopted-budget.pdf)
did you ask trimet about the the real story on the union contract?
trimet says:
“A recent Employment Relations Board (ERB) decision removed certain cost-saving proposals from our final labor contract offer, so some measures we were hoping to implement—such as bringing wage and health care costs under control—likely will have to wait for a future negotiation (after interest arbitration, which is now delayed).”
but that’s not the whole story.
ERB made it clear (in lawyer terms at least) that trimet screwed up. they didn’t submit evidence it had about health insurance costs (http://www.oregon.gov/ERB/orders/UP01611.pdf?ga=t) – see page 4 paragraph 2:
“the Union…argued that TriMet unlawfully included…a new proposal concerning employee payment of health insurance premiums..TrMet understood, or should have understood that (the email attachments TriMet failed to submit) prove that TriMet made (the proposal the union says it did not)…TriMet had every reason to offer these attachments as an exhibit at the hearing…TriMet’s failure to offer the February 11 e-mail attachments as evidence, whether an intentional or negligent act, does not provide a ‘good and sufficient reason’ to reopen the record…”
in other words trimet had the evidence it needed to make sure its final offer wouldn’t blow its budget. but now even if trimet “wins” on contract, they (which means WE – the bus riders and taxpayers) will still have a $5 million hole to fill.
trimet’s failure to submit evidence by “intentional or negligent act” that they “understood, or should have understood” was significant equals $5 million.
take that one in for a minute.
this was a $5 million error by trimet management.
trimet is cutting out all the free rides for the public but at least the press – including the “alternate” press – keeps giving their inept management all the free rides it can handle.
So let’s just translate in more honest terms what Trimet’s proposed slashes will REALLY mean:
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• Raise the cheapest fare to $2.50 and eliminate round-trip fares
Raise fares for EVERYONE, including children, students, seniors, disabled.
• Reduce MAX frequency to every 20 minutes, except during rush hour
Making riders wait even longer outside in cold wet weather; commutes to work/school will be even longer. Likely losses in productivity.
• Sell ads on TriMet TransitTracker
Force people to have to endure annoying ads that they don’t want to see, for shit they don’t want to buy.
• Kill the Free Rail Zone
Pretty much punishing people who live dt. One less incentive to live or even do business in dt Portland. Unattended consequence: loss of revenue.
• Cut or reduce service on 14 bus lines
Forcing riders to wait even longer at busstops, majority of which don’t even have shelters. Many are nothing more than poles in the ground. Many have no stop I.D. #. Harder time getting to work/school, etc.
• Stop TriMet subsidy of free passes for Portland students
Oh wonderful. Force already poor students into even greater poverty.
• Slash Portland Streetcar funding by $400,000
Again, one less reason to live in dt. Divesting in public transit – including trains and street cars – has NEVER really “saved” money nor led to anything good. This lesson should’ve been learned decades ago!
• Downsize LIFT service available for people with disabilities
Making life even more burdensome for the disabled/immobile. Cutting what amounts to a mere penance will NOT save Trimet any money!
@jackportlandia, missing receipts means less money coming in, it has nothing to do with expenses like the milwaukee line.
@econoline any rail expansion requires a local match. that means $750 million dollars is coming from local funds to pay for the $1.5 billion MAX from portland to milwaukie. the vast majority of that $750 million comes from trimet’s coffers.
they take pay for their share of $750 million via bond but that bond is paid with fare revenue and payroll tax revenue every year.
missing receipts means less money coming in, continuing to mortgage those receipts to build more rail lines means even less ability to pay for bus service & existing MAX service.
so yes, it does have to do with the milwaukee line. they are paying that debt right now. in fact they have already mortgaged the future for it (local match plus the fed portion).