The Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority expects to cut services this summer in order to trim its annual budget by $11.2 million. The exact cuts haven’t been announced, but one transportation advocate expects reduced frequency of stops on some routes or eliminated routes.
RTA General Manager and CEO India Birdsong Terry told Signal Cleveland in an email that the agency is working to minimize the impact on riders, but did not specify what that might entail.
Clevelanders for Public Transit railed against the cuts, writing in a November press release that service cuts would further accelerate the RTA’s “death spiral” and have devastating fallout for riders without other ways to travel to work, medical appointments or to see family and friends.
Their suggested solution? Find new revenue.
That could be a .5% sales or property tax increase, which the agency could put on the ballot. Or the city could pitch in with a parking tax or parking meter money to plug the gap, the advocacy group recommended.
“In terms of what that new revenue generation is… whatever works,” CPT wrote in the press release.
How is RTA funded?
RTA funding comes from three main sources: a sales tax, government subsidies and grants and passenger fares. The sales tax makes up the largest percentage of funding, providing about three-quarters of the agency’s operating budget, according to their website. However, that has taken a hit since the Ohio stopped taxing Medicaid managed health care organizations, which led to decreased revenues for transit authorities.
In addition, during the pandemic, RTA received COVID-19 relief funds from the federal government which it used to plug funding gaps and continue service. While that money was flowing the agency used money from other sources to reduce debt and saved to stabilize operations, the agency said in a email.
GCRTA originally expected this money to support it until the end of 2026, but that fund is now expected to run out. Birdsong Terry wrote she expects service reductions will be needed but did not specify which lines or services would be affected.
“We are making budget adjustments now to prevent the need for larger reductions in one year, ”GCRTA wrote.
Weighting option to pay for transit in the future
Chris Martin, chair of Clevelanders for Public Transit, suggested a series of options to replace lost revenue and prevent service cuts. The “single largest source” would be a county-wide sales tax increase of half a percent, he said. The RTA currently receives 1% from a sales tax, which applies to goods and services sold in Cuyahoga County. This amount has not changed since the RTA adopted it in 1975. The county’s total rate – including state and local taxes – is 8%
While the sales tax has remained the same, Cuyahoga County’s population has decreased, which has further limited the amount of RTA revenue gained from this source, Martin said.
Cleveland Council Member Charles Slife, who represents Ward 15, said a county-wide increase would be fair since the RTA is a county-wide service, though he is not yet sure if he would be supportive of it. This option hasn’t been discussed, as far as he knows, at council meetings.
Other options Martin listed include redirecting parking tax revenue that currently goes towards the Browns stadium to RTA, employers joining an IRS tax program that provides subsidized public transportation plans for employees and eliminating the RTA Police Department — which had a budget of over $19 million in 2025 — and using those funds for the service instead.
“There is a good argument for [ RTA to] figure out ways to diversify their sources of revenue,” Martin said in an interview. “So maybe the real long-term solution is to not depend on any one source primarily, but to find a good mix of revenue sources from various revenue sources.”
Martin said that the new fleet of 60 common railcars the RTA is expected to use to replace current heavy and light railcars is a “great opportunity [for the RTA] to sell themselves to the public.” The agency should focus not only on preventing cuts but also expanding service, Martin said.
Birdsong Terry wrote GCRTA is evaluating tax levy options and considering other potential funding sources like selling underutilized property. Another funding source it is considering are Transit Oriented Development projects. These projects typically include “increased transit ridership and economic revitalization by enhancing the connection of people to jobs,” according to an emailed response from the GCRTA.
“[This] will generate increased revenue for a transit authority and the local businesses in the area,” the GCRTA wrote.
Some steps have already been implemented to reduce operating expenses. These include discontinuing Wi-Fi on buses, trains and trolleys, removing 56 vacant positions, reducing budgeted overtime and imposing a hiring freeze.
The City of Cleveland said in an emailed statement that it is keeping track of any developments to the RTA’s budget and service levels as the agency looks to address shortfalls. The statement did not address any of the suggested solutions specifically.
“The City, in partnership with the many jurisdictions RTA serves, will continue to engage constructively and support efforts to minimize impacts on residents and riders,” a spokesperson wrote.
Martin said many residents rely on public transportation for access to jobs, and healthcare and human relationships. Roughly 20% of Cleveland residents lack access to a personal vehicle, according to CPT’s Nov. 19 press release.
“Being able to move from place to place is a basic human freedom. It should be a basic human freedom,” Martin said. “When you make that harder by cutting a public service, you are hurting people’s lives.”
