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WeGo presents FY26 baseline and Choose How You Move investment requests; half-cent tax collections to begin Feb. 1
Summary
WeGo staff outlined a FY26 operating plan that requests an $88.66 million baseline and roughly $93.3 million in investments tied to the Choose How You Move sales tax; staff described an operating reserve and reductions in federal capital reliance.
WeGo Public Transit staff presented the agency's fiscal-year funding request and an outline of investment priorities tied to the Choose How You Move transit improvement program during the board's January meeting.
Amanda (WeGo finance staff) told the board the baseline operating request to Metro Finance will be $88,660,000. On top of that, staff described investment requests totaling roughly $93,300,000 associated with Choose How You Move and related priorities. Amanda said staff are proposing a two-stage approach: an initial set of investments in the current fiscal year totaling about $46,200,000, and a follow-on tranche for the next fiscal year of roughly $47,100,000, together representing the $93.3 million investment package discussed.
Key elements highlighted: an operating reserve seeded with an initial allocation of roughly $40,000,000 (staff described the reserve as a best practice to provide short-term stability and to improve competitiveness for federal capital grants); a plan to reduce reliance on federal 5307 formula funds for operating expenses and shift them back to capital (staff proposed $3.5 million in the current year and another $3.5 million next year, totaling $7 million, to begin that shift); and investments in system safety, security and rider experience, recruitment and retention, access-on-demand services, and targeted service improvements.
Amanda described three drivers for the baseline increase: ongoing service improvements that were temporarily funded by federal pandemic relief funds, inflation and wage pressures, and operating revenue impacts from policy choices such as fare capping and expanding subsidy programs. Staff estimated a decline in average passenger revenue per trip in recent years and quantified operating revenue impacts from programs such as the WeGo Ride partner program, social-services subsidy cards (including cold-weather and connector cards), and the community impact partnership program; combined, staff estimated those policy-driven revenue impacts at roughly $2.4 million needing baseline support.
Board members asked for more granular breakout of the $2.4 million impact by program and sought benchmarking on operating-reserve governance. Amanda and Steve (CEO) said Metro Finance will hold Choose How You Move proceeds in separate accounting beginning Feb. 1 after a court ruling cleared the program; staff will return with more detailed breakdowns for board consideration and will propose policy guardrails for tapping the operating reserve.
No formal board vote was taken; the presentation will inform the agency's formal submission to Metro Finance with a February 7 deadline for operating budget requests.
