[ptero]

> The cuts were exacerbated by state Republicans getting a proposed payroll tax repeal onto the ballot next month

Sorry to nitpick, but why is the next month's ballot (and in general the issues that have not been voted on yet) affecting current service?

[starkparker]

> A scheduled increase to Oregon’s transportation taxes, including those that help fund TriMet, is on hold after an effort to repeal the hike secured enough signatures to send the issue to the ballot next month.

from the Oregonian article I linked

The service changes take affect in August, in large part because they can no longer expect the funding for them to exist by then.

> “The agency’s current position is that they have to cut service now to avoid worse cuts later, although worse cuts may be coming later anyway,” Walker wrote.

from the Mercury article I linked

[fsckboy]

>The service changes take affect in August, in large part because they can no longer expect the funding for them to exist by then.

I think a more plausible reason is, "withdraw the services now to get people who want that spending and that service irritated, and therefore more likely to get out and vote for it". Keeping service in place till the vote might supress the vote through complacency.

I'm not passing a value judgement on this top-down pressure on the electorate, governments should in theory be neutral and uphold current law, but governments are populated by politicians, and politicians who advocated this still want to advocate it and give it its best electoral chance. In a like "up is down" sense, people who favor cutting this government expenditure should favor the early cuts, they save money... of course, they don't, just sayin.

[alphawhisky]

Two Santas but it's federa/state vs on a cyclic basis. Disgusting.