NEWBERG, Ore. — The transit manager for Yamhill County Transit says the service cuts that went into effect on Monday are not the end of the road for the agency, but warns that without a dedicated local funding source, further reductions are inevitable.
“If we don’t figure out a local dedicated funding source, we’ll have to continue reducing services,” said Yamhill County Transit Manager Cynthia Thompson.
Thompson, who has managed the agency since 2015, said the nearly $700,000 budget gap driving the current round of cuts reflects a structural funding problem that has built over years — one that she said may get significantly worse.
The agency is currently applying for federal funding for the 2027-29 biennium and has learned that one of its primary sources, a federal formula grant program for rural transit known as Section 5311, is expected to be reduced by approximately $4 million for Oregon, which trickles down to $400,000 for YCT. With the required local match factored in, Thompson said the impact to YCT’s operating budget would be substantial.
“It’s pretty depressing, because I don’t know what we can do or where we can go from here,” she said. “There are some options on the table, but few good ones.”
YCT operates primarily on federal and state grant funding to cover it’s $5 million operating costs. The county has contributed more anywhere from $354,000 to $1.2 million, as in the 2025-26 budget, annually to the system — by far the largest local contribution — but that the cities the agency serves have largely not kept pace.
Newberg contributes $20,000 per year, as detailed in its approved budget. McMinnville, the system’s operational hub, contributed $31,500 in the 2025-2026 fiscal year — despite receiving what Thompson estimated at roughly $1.5 million worth of service per year.
“Every year I write a letter to the cities to request funds, but there is no requirement,” Thompson said. “It’s a tough time for everyone right now. All budgets need to be really lean.”
Yamhill County Transit was established in 2007 as a county service district, not a county department, meaning cities have no legal obligation to contribute.
“I felt like, over 10 years, we’ve needed to educate the cities to say: this is your system, your district,” Thompson said.
Thompson said fares — suspended during the COVID-19 pandemic — will return, though she cautioned they would not close the agency’s funding gap on their own.
The Yamhill County Transit Advisory Committee has recommended a new fare structure, and Thompson said the agency plans to release it for public comment in June, with a board vote expected by the end of the year. Before the pandemic, the agency collected a maximum of approximately $280,000 in annual fare revenue.
Its current annual operating budget is approximately $5 million, not including capital costs.
“It isn’t going to fund the system,” Thompson said of fare revenue.
To illustrate the real cost of restoring even a portion of what is being cut, Thompson offered a specific figure: bringing back a single daily Dial-a-Ride vehicle to Newberg for one full year — an eight-hour daily shift — would cost approximately $232,960 at the current contracted service rate, before fuel or administrative overhead.
“Having a sense of that might encourage the city to understand the costs and how they can meaningfully contribute,” she said.
Yamhill County Transit contracts its bus operations to Transdev, a private transportation management company. Thompson said the agency spent six months negotiating its current contract and received terms slightly higher than before. She said the agency may pursue a new competitive bidding process, but does not expect it to materially change the cost picture.
Thompson said she did not want to reduce demand-response service and was direct about who would be affected.
“I didn’t want to adjust the demand-response services,” she said. “These are vulnerable people who need it.”
According to a draft YCT Service Change and Schedule document, total Dial-a-Ride service hours countywide will be cut from approximately 13,400 hours per year to roughly 5,900 — a reduction of about 56 percent. Thompson said the agency was previously operating roughly 10 demand-response vehicles; after May 11, it will run one in McMinnville and two in Newberg.
She noted that some affected riders may still qualify for ADA Paratransit, a federally required door-to-door service for people whose disabilities prevent them from using fixed-route buses. But she cautioned that the legal obligation to provide that service, regardless of cost, creates its own pressures.
“If a lot of folks qualify for paratransit, we have to, by law, provide that service. So we may have to increase the van in McMinnville,” she said. “But then you’re back to taking away from something else. It’s like a balloon — if you squeeze in one section, the air goes to another section.”
Thompson outlined several potential paths forward, none of them certain.
Oregon voters will decide on Ballot Measure 120, which, according to the Oregon Voters’ Guide, would generate an estimated $117 million for Oregon county public transit agencies. Even if it passes, Thompson described it as a temporary fix rather than a long-term solution.
A second round of service changes is planned for summer 2026 and may include a pilot shopper and medical shuttle in Newberg to partially offset the loss of general-public Dial-a-Ride, as well as re-routing of McMinnville local fixed routes. The Newberg shuttle is described in agency planning materials as coming soon, though it has not been formally approved.
Ultimately, Thompson said the decisions ahead belong to the community and its elected leaders.
“The community is going to have to decide what is most important to them, and how to allocate resources,” she said.
Residents can contact the Yamhill County Board of Commissioners — which serves as Yamhill County Transit’s governing board — through yamhillcounty.gov. The agency’s dispatch team can help riders plan trips on existing fixed-route service and can be reached at 503-474-4900.
