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12/19/2023
The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) last week released its proposed budget for the next fiscal year that, without additional contributions from its funding partners, would necessitate fare increases and drastic service and workforce cuts, agency officials say.
WMATA faces a $750 million funding gap for fiscal-year 2025, which begins July 1, 2024. The budget gap is a result of several factors, including lower ridership revenue that is still recovering from the pandemic, the depletion of federal pandemic relief funds, a subsidy credit provided to jurisdictions in 2020 and historic inflation, WMATA officials said in a news release.
WMATA is unique among U.S. transit agencies because it's structured without any independent funding and is legally required to pass a balanced budget every year.
Beginning in January, WMATA plans to implement a hiring freeze, eliminate wage and salary increases, and issue legally required layoff notices to portions of its workforce, alerting them about potential layoffs next summer if additional funding is not provided. Due to workforce attrition, riders could notice degraded service as early as late winter or early spring, WMATA officials said.