Community Transit proposes $560M biennial budget

EVERETT — Community Transit proposed a $560 million biennial operating budget at a work session Thursday that would pay for increased service levels, more staff, and new construction over the next two years.

The Snohomish County transit agency’s first biennial budget would include $277 million for operating costs in 2026 and $283 million for operating costs in 2027. Over the next two years, the budget would fund an increase of about 130,000 service hours, hire 198 new staff and fund additional pilot areas for the Community Transit’s microtransit service, known as Zip. Fourteen of those new staff will be security officers, the budget reads.

Including capital costs, the proposed 2026-27 budget totals $851 million.

Capital dollars in the budget will pay for work on a planned extension of the Swift Green Line bus rapid transit service, connecting the route to the University of Washington Bothell campus. Funding will also pay for upgrades to Everett Station and the Smokey Point Transit Center. In the next two years, Community Transit will also make an order for 10 new fully electric buses, along with constructing new infrastructure to support the battery-powered vehicles.

Service hours on the agency’s fixed-route buses are set to increase from 469,000 in 2025 to 503,000 in 2026, growing to 515,000 in 2027.

General fund revenues in 2026 and 2027 are greater than planned expenditures. Over the next two years, Community Transit plans to transfer about $122 million in general fund dollars from its existing balance to pay for capital projects, workers’ compensation and add to its capital reserves.

“We are presenting a budget that is balanced, as well as robust,” Community Transit CEO Ric Ilgenfritz said Thursday.

Public comment on the proposed budget will be accepted through Nov. 14. Community Transit’s board of directors is expected to vote on the budget on Dec. 4.

Will Geschke: 425-339-3443; william.geschke@heraldnet.com; X: @willgeschke.