The leader of the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority says service would become more frequent if voters approve a tax hike in May.
A looming fiscal cliff has led RTA to ask Cuyahoga County voters next May to increase its biggest single revenue source, the sales tax. Transit advocates warn about a cycle of service cuts and ridership declines dubbed the “death spiral.” And RTA has predicted about future cuts without more revenue.
But in an interview with Signal Cleveland, CEO India Birdsong Terry instead emphasized the new life that she argued the levy’s passage could bring to RTA.
“What we need is the butts in the seat. We need the population,” she said. “So if we can make the bus come on a predictable, frequent network that’s safe and that is new enough so people feel safe on it…I do believe that we have a better shot at bringing people back to transit.”
The transit agency is still picking up fewer riders than it did before the COVID-19 pandemic that began in 2020. Personnel costs are higher than they were before then. RTA plans a 3% service cut in August and expects to take $28 million from reserves next year to stabilize its operating budget.
RTA is asking voters to back the tax increase at a time when Cuyahoga County residents already face higher prices amid inflation — and when voters are being asked to consider other tax increases. Levies for county health and disabilities services are expected to appear on the November ballot.
Terry acknowledged the financial squeeze that a tax hike would put on consumers.
“I’m not shirking that at all,” she said. “It’s definitely something that people have to think about. I think people have to think about it like an investment in what they want their city to be.”
RTA pitches more frequent service with sales tax levy
RTA’s board hasn’t yet decided how much of a tax hike to put before voters. Currently, the transit agency levies a 1% sales tax, part of the overall 8% tax on purchases in the county. The board could ask voters to raise RTA’s tax as high as 1.5%.
That would raise another almost $140 million for RTA, based on last year’s collections. With that money, RTA could make $25 million in service improvements and achieve long-term stability, Terry said at a board meeting in June.
RTA pitches Red Line Rapid trains leaving the airport every 5 minutes and HealthLine buses arriving every 7.5 minutes. Service could improve on 75% of routes, RTA officials said in a June presentation.
There would also be more funds for proposed and potential bus rapid transit lines on West 25th Street, Broadway Avenue, Lorain Avenue and in the eastern suburbs, officials said.
RTA will have to win over voters who, like most people in Cuyahoga County, probably don’t take the bus or Rapid regularly. In 2024, the transit agency reported around 78,000 rides on the average weekday. That’s in a county with a population of more than 1.2 million.
Terry pitched a RTA as a way for people in the suburbs to travel downtown for events. Even a new Browns stadium in Brook Park could be part of that circulation among downtown and the suburbs, she argued.
“We want to be able to be the mechanism that connects the suburb to the city,” she said. “And so even when you think about new opportunities like Brook Park — love it or hate it, I just want to get people there.”
More cuts coming without more revenue, RTA warns
That’s RTA’s upbeat case for a levy. The transit agency has a gloomier case to make, too: without a tax hike, $30 million service and spending cuts are possible over the next three years.
That same presentation from June lays out those potential cuts. Out of 41 bus lines, 27 could have less service with no new revenue. RTA could reduce the span of the Green Line Rapid and discontinue 8 bus lines.
Those arguments are persuasive with Jenna Thomas, who co-chairs the advocacy group Clevelanders for Public Transit. RTA can’t rely on state and federal dollars for general operations, she said — hence the need for raising the sales tax.
“We can’t afford public transit to get worse,” Thomas, who has worked as a Cleveland Documenter, said in an interview. “We want it to get better. And yeah, the forecast of the next three years is pretty scary.”
Thomas offered an idea for winning voters who don’t ride public transit: RTA should promise to spend a portion of the new tax revenue on general infrastructure improvements. That’s what RTA’s counterpart in Cincinnati did. In 2020, Hamilton County narrowly passed a sales tax increase for public transportation that also devoted money to roads and bridges near transit.
Clevelanders for Public Transit has advocated for a sales tax increase for years. Thomas worries that RTA has taken too long to come around to the idea, and that riders could pay the price.
“Everyone has known that this is coming, and to me it feels like a lot of what is happening now is very last minute,” she said.
Campaign for tax hike will need many backers
Voters may have some trepidation about being asked to pay out more for public transit. A May poll found 54% of respondents say they supported the idea of RTA receiving more money, but felt they couldn’t afford it.
Winning voters’ support will take a full-fledged political campaign. That could prove expensive. The poll by LJR Custom Solutions cost the agency $24,750, and RTA has a $48,000 contract with political consultant Burges & Burges Strategists.
Campaign costs would be paid not by RTA, but by a political action committee funded by supporters of a tax increase.
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RTA has an economic argument that might appeal to the business leaders who would likely be tapped for campaign contributions. An increase to a 1.5% sales tax could put 273,000 jobs and 301,000 people within a half mile of a line running every 10 minutes, officials said in June.
“If we are just giving enough to transit to limp along, I don’t know that it’s going to solve the problem that Cleveland has, which I think is how do we become a competitive city with an international market?” Terry said.
Whether that argument sways Cleveland’s business world remains to be seen. The Greater Cleveland Partnership hasn’t yet met with RTA about the levy, a spokesperson for the chamber of commerce said.
