More than half of Cuyahoga County voters would support public transit receiving more money — but feel they can’t afford it.
That finding from a survey commissioned by the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority underscores the agency’s political challenge in seeking a sales tax hike next May.
While a majority of voters expressed positive views about RTA, the survey also found that 29% were undecided on whether the public transit agency needs more money.
Jennifer Johnson, who leads New Orleans-based pollster LJR Custom Strategies, encouraged RTA to solidify its base of voters who are open to more funding for the agency. But transit advocates also should try to change the minds of some undecided voters, she said.
“Those undecideds right now are quite negative about the direction of the county and toward RTA,” Johnson told RTA board members at their June 16 meeting. “So there’s work to do in order to take these data and build a group that would be open to supporting an investment in the future.”
Conducted in May this year, the survey tallied RTA’s positives and negatives among 600 registered voters in the county. The transit agency hired local political consultant Burges & Burges and LJR to research RTA’s standing in the community.
The survey found:
- 39% of respondents said it made sense to ask for more money, even at the same level of service
- 23% said RTA should seek more money only if the agency could expand its services
- 11% said the agency shouldn’t ask for more funding
- 29% were undecided
The survey did not ask explicitly about a ballot issue raising the sales tax. That’s because the survey was paid for by a public agency rather than a political action committee, Burges President Vanessa Tey Iosue said at the meeting. Instead, the survey asked voters about their attitudes toward RTA and its financial needs.
RTA plans to ask voters to raise the county’s sales tax in the May 2027 primary to pay for its bus and train network. The exact amount is to be determined. The hike could go as high as 0.5 percentage points. The agency currently levies a 1% sales tax, part of the county’s overall 8% tax.
One challenge that the consultants highlighted: the survey found more of a muddle, rather than overwhelming optimism and pessimism, about the county’s future. Only 25% said the county was moving in the right direction, while 17% said it was going the wrong way. The rest of respondents, or 58%, said the direction was mixed.
“We really need more people than that to feel positive about the outlook of a community before we try to convince them to provide support for community organizations and institutions,” Johnson said.
Read a summary of the survey findings below:
Cuyahoga voters concerned about safety, but feel good about RTA’s Healthline
Voters’ worries about affordability were worth keeping in mind, Johnson said.
Overall, 54% of respondents said they’d back higher funding for RTA, but can’t afford to. Half said that RTA should have enough money now. And 48% said there were more important uses of funding.
Other results showed voters’ mixed views on the public transit agency. Three quarters of voters said that investing in RTA was good for job creation. But less than half, or 41%, believed that RTA makes good use of tax dollars. More than 70% expressed concerns about safety and cleanliness.
The survey identified messages that appeared to play well with voters. The Healthline elicited the most positive response. The survey found that 90% of voters said they felt more positively about RTA after a question mentioning the bus service that runs from Tower City to University Circle along Euclid Avenue.
“That is very compelling data,” Johnson told board members.
She said RTA should highlight how it is taking on voters’ concerns about cleanliness and safety. The agency should also talk about its role carrying workers to jobs, students to school and patients to healthcare appointments.
The LJR survey had a margin of error of 3.9%.
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Regular RTA riders give tough performance ratings
The majority of respondents, or 55%, said they had positive feelings about RTA. Only 8% reported negative feelings.
While those numbers are a good sign for the transit agency, another taxpayer-supported service rated better. The Cuyahoga County Board of Developmental Disabilities, which is seeking a property tax levy in November, earned an 81% positivity rating in the survey. Zero percent of voters said they viewed the board negatively.
Better-off respondents tended to have better feelings about RTA. Among those making $75,000 or more, 83% felt positively about the agency. That number was 39% among voters making $50,000 or less.
Frequent riders emerged as some of RTA’s harshest critics. Just 34% of regular riders said the transit agency performed well or excellently. Most, or 61%, gave RTA a performance score of fair or poor.
But regular riders were also most likely to say that it made sense for RTA to seek more money. Among those who take RTA regularly, 83% agreed with the idea of the agency asking for more money, even if service remained the same. Another 10% said RTA should look for more money only if service expanded.
Overall, 43% of voters gave RTA’s service a grade of good or excellent, while 38% said it was fair or poor. Results from subgroups were subject to a margin of error of 10%.
Winning business and community leaders with more than the status quo
In addition to the voter survey, Burges & Burges interviewed 55 political, business and nonprofit leaders about RTA. Those conversations didn’t yield a single vision for the transit agency’s future, Tey Iosue said.
Interviewees felt uncertain about RTA’s long-term direction, she said. There were concerns about cleanliness and safety, particularly from those who weren’t regular users. Some wanted to know how outer-ring suburbs benefited from the transit agency.
RTA should follow up with interviewees and talk to suburban mayors, Tey Iosue said. She said the business community would also want to be part of crafting the agency’s vision.
“They also really want to understand what the potential revenue could get them, what’s the difference,” she said. “The status quo isn’t seen as providing enough to the community in terms of value.”
