Trimet to slash $300M, drop services

By Taxpayers Association of Oregon Foundation

TriMet, Portland’s transit system, must cut $300 million from its budget by 2030, prompting the agency to eliminate jobs and curtail services. Transit system officials plan to implement cuts of at least 10 percent before September 2027, attributing the need for cuts to Oregon lawmakers’ failure to pass the funding provided in the Transportation Reinvestment Package.

This cut comes despite the Metro-wide transit payroll tax and the (only-one-in-nation) statewide transit wage tax which gave them a $50 million annual boost.  TriMet also received nearly $75 million from Biden’s Infrastructure Act.

All that flood of new money somehow drove away customers (ridership sank) while at the same making the agency more expensive to run.

Also remember, Oregon has been on a light-rail buying spree for decades.  Every time they build a new light-rail, taxpayers subsidize each rider by as much as 75% of the fare cost.   Portland has been expanding itself into bankruptcy.