Regional transit leaders say six steps could help Metro stay on a viable financial footing, but they fear more of the cost could fall on local governments.
Despite recent steps in the right direction, “the fundamental long-term funding question remains unsolved,” Owen Williams, a program analyst with the Northern Virginia Transportation Commission (NVTC), said at the organization’s board of directors meeting last Thursday (Nov. 5).
An annual report on the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority’s (WMATA) financial and operational performance — a draft of which was reviewed at the meeting — is expected to be finalized early next month by the NVTC board and forwarded to Gov. Abigail Spanberger and the Virginia General Assembly.
While state legislators gave Northern Virginia governments some of what they wanted in WMATA funding during the 2026 session — totaling $153 million more per year for capital costs — it was a two-year fix that, if not extended, could saddle localities with each paying tens of millions of dollars more, starting in fiscal 2029.
“To maintain the system, it has to be paid for somehow,” said Adam Hager, the Metro program manager for NVTC.
“Every dollar that is not generated from fares is going to have to come from subsidies — that’s effectively state and local taxes,” he continued. “It’s really a question of the right balance.”
For local government officials, that balance involves the state government providing more financial resources. But some Virginia lawmakers have questioned why the region isn’t doing more to either fund the service itself, or offer creative solutions for state lawmakers to consider.
Simply asking for more money from Richmond is “kind of like saying ‘find that rainbow with a pot of gold at the end,'” said Del. Paul Krizek (D-16), who serves on the NVTC board.
He wanted local leaders to “tell us, like, these are three really good [funding] options — or five or 10 or whatever. The more, the better.”
Dranesville District Supervisor Jimmy Bierman, another NVTC board member, was on board with that.
“Give ’em a menu of options,” he said.
A special legislative subcommittee — known as SJ28 — did deliver a report to state lawmakers in advance of the 2026 General Assembly session on ways to stabilize and augment transit funding for Metro, Virginia Railway Express and local bus systems.
“A lot of this had been discussed and answered” in the SJ28 report, said Arlington County Board member Maureen Coffey, an NVTC board member.
Coffey acknowledged that the proposals are “maybe not as fresh in our minds any more,” and asked NVTC staff to ensure legislators received reminders of possibilities.
The final SJ28 report outlined a number of funding options, and state legislators agreed to one. They gave local governments in Northern Virginia the power to send their voters referendums that would increase local sales taxes by 1 percentage point, with the revenue going to transportation, education or a combination of the two.
Fairfax City was the only Northern Virginia locality to put a referendum on the Nov. 3 ballot, irking some lawmakers who asked why the region wasn’t using a tool offered by the General Assembly to help with transit needs.
Even if a tax increase is approved by voters, as it was last week in Fairfax City, the resulting revenue wouldn’t get close to fully funding WMATA’s capital needs.
“Northern Virginia jurisdictions will need a workable way to meet the capital obligations,” Williams said.
The total expected cost of those additional obligations is $136 million spread across Northern Virginia localities for fiscal year 2029, escalating by 3% per year. Arlington officials already have estimated they would need to raise the county’s real estate tax rate 8 cents per $100 of assessed value if the burden fell squarely on its General Fund.
Created in the 1960s, the Metro system is something of a Frankenstein-esque creation, with funding and control responsibilities split up between the federal government, the Virginia and Maryland state governments, the D.C. government and suburban local governments.
“We’re the only major transit system in the U.S. that doesn’t have a dedicated revenue source,” said Hunter Mill District Supervisor Walter Alcorn, who serves on both the NVTC and WMATA boards.
Separate from the SJ28 review, a regional DMV Moves initiative led last year by WMATA and the Washington Metropolitan Council of Governments (COG) was intended to identify and recommend dedicated, sustainable funding options for Metro and other transit systems.
The resulting report, which was endorsed by the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, projected that Metro alone would need $460 million starting in FY 2029, with a 3% increase every year after that to account for inflation. Of the suggested funding mechanisms, the sales tax increase was the only one that found traction in the General Assembly during its 2026 session.
The performance report set to be adopted by the NVTC board early next month identified six paths for maintaining Metro’s financial viability:
- Creating long-term-funding options
- Ensuring that funding growth is contained to 3% annually
- Negotiating sustainable contracts with unions
- Reviewing budget for overtime costs
- Revisiting existing fare policies and strengthening enforcement
- Establishing a regional audit process to track local funding
In a recent interview with WJLA, Metro General Manager Randy Clarke warned that his budget proposal for the next fiscal year starting in July will likely call for service cuts and fare increases to address a deficit stemming from challenges with riders not paying fares, tariffs, inflation, and rising fuel and electricity costs.
Clarke is slated to present his FY 2028 budget plan to the Metro board in December.
After discussing Metro’s performance, NVTC members at the Nov. 5 meeting focused on plans for lobbying efforts during the 2027 General Assembly session, which opens Jan. 13 and is expected to run 45 days.
