MCTS Budget Picture Keeps Getting Worse

MCTS Bus. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.

The Milwaukee County Transit System (MCTS) is preparing for its first major service cuts in years as its short-term budget picture worsens.

MCTS will cut service by 6% in 2026 to close a $9 million budget gap, MCTS President and CEO Steve Fuentes said Tuesday. The gap was originally $14 million, but the Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors scraped together an additional $4.7 million, funding that MCTS cannot rely on the following year.

In 2027, MCTS will face a budget deficit between $18 million and $20 million, Fuentes told supervisors on the Committee on Transportation and Transit. It will be the first year since 2019 that MCTS creates a budget without the help of federal stimulus funds released during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Fuentes said his agency will begin preparing for the 2027 budget in January. At the same time, the system will be managing the implementation of cuts and attempting to bring staffing in line with increasingly diminished bus service.

“It is a very fluid situation,” Fuentes said.

MCTS implemented a hiring freeze in the wake of a midyear deficit that caught the system by surprise and snowballed into a political controversy. Officials initially concealed the budget deficit from county supervisors and the Office of the Comptroller, but the magnitude of the gap and contract negotiations with the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 998 forced the system to announce it publicly. Supervisors learned the transit system was over budget through media reports.

To shrink the deficit, the agency began spending down stimulus funding faster and announced service reductions. The reduced service led officials to temporarily suspend recruitment and stop hiring for vacant positions, Fuentes said. The new CEO was hired amidst the tumult.

MCTS recently released a plan to avoid cutting entire routes in 2026 using the funding from the budget amendment. Supervisors gave initial approval for the plan at the committee meeting Tuesday. The proposal will go before the full board later this month. MCTS is likely to continue to adjust service in response to rider feedback and budget realities throughout the year, Fuentes said.

“How we start in January, I would almost say with certainty that that’s not how we’re going to end in December,” Fuentes said.