(The Center Square) – Milwaukee County Transit System plans to use federal COVID-19 relief funds to close a projected $10.9 million budget deficit this year.
However, concerns are mounting over a larger structural shortfall expected in 2026.
The budget deficit, announced last month, came as a surprise to MCTS, county officials and the public, leading to the resignations of interim MCTS CEO Julie Esch and Milwaukee County Department of Transportation Director Donna Brown-Martin.
Although relief funds were originally planned to have been spent until 2028, the plan to use up the funds this year is causing some transit officials to see 2026 as a “fiscal cliff” for MCTS, Urban Milwaukee reported.
“Now we’re likely going to run out of federal funds in 2026,” Joe Lamers, director of the Office of Strategy, Budget and Performance, told county supervisors at a meeting. “Now we’re getting ready to prepare the 2026 budget, and we are suddenly faced with this federal funding lapse issue that we previously thought we have a little bit longer of a timeline to get to.”
MCTS is the largest transit system in Wisconsin, with a deficit estimated between $12 million and $18 million.
Now, MCTS is also considering cutting some of its bus routes in order to save money, although Esch said that’s the “last thing” they want to do.
“We provide 80,000 rides a day – that’s tens of thousands of Milwaukee County residents who depend on us to get to work, school, and medical care,” Esch told Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “Our goal is to ensure that service cuts have minimal impacts on the businesses, organizations, and people who rely on this important service.”
Members of the labor union Amalgamated Transit Union Local 998 have expressed criticism and distrust of MCTS following the deficit’s announcement, leading to members voting 98% in favor of authorizing a strike Wednesday.
However, a strike could not happen until at least August as the current contract between MCTS and ATU 998 was extended until the end of July to allow more time for negotiations.
