Camas mayor says C-Tran shortchanging small cities

Officials in some of Clark County’s small cities claim they’re not getting their money’s worth out of C-Tran and are threatening to break ties with the transit agency.

“If you look at Vancouver, and then go to every other city … every other city is being shortchanged,” Camas Mayor Steve Hogan told Camas officials and members of the public during an Aug. 18 Camas City Council workshop.

The calculation isn’t so simple, however.

Eric Florip, C-Tran’s communications manager, said looking at revenues collected versus operating expenses in each jurisdiction does not provide an apples-to-apples estimate.

“Operating expenses vary quite a bit depending on the service,” Florip said. “It’s not necessarily going to be a 1-to-1 comparison.”

Cities aren’t dipping into their own general funds to pay for bus service, although the system did originate in 1969 as a Vancouver-operated agency. It expanded countywide after voters in 1980 approved a new public transit benefit area along with a 0.3 percent sales tax. Today, C-Tran collects a 0.7 percent sales tax throughout the county and its cities to fund operations.

According to C-Tran, the small cities — Battle Ground, Camas, La Center, Ridgefield, Washougal and Yacolt — contributed $17.1 million in sales taxes last year.

That’s 20 percent of C-Tran’s 2024 total sales tax revenues. The other 80 percent came from Vancouver ($49.36 million) and the county’s urban growth area ($18.86 million).

In 2024, sales taxes accounted for 83 percent of the agency’s operating revenues, with passenger fares, grants and other sources making up the remaining 17 percent.

C-Tran’s biggest expenditures are employee-related. In 2025, the agency expects to spend $65.1 million out of its $115.1 million operating budget on employee salaries and benefits. Other expenses include services ($11.4 million), supplies ($12.2 million), depreciation and amortization ($22 million), utilities ($1.43 million) and insurance ($1.82 million).

Small-city investments

The information provided to Camas officials last month showed C-Tran’s 2024 operating expenses in Vancouver, Clark County’s urban growth area and the small cities.

In 2024, 70 percent of the agency’s operating expenses ($53.6 million) were tied to fixed bus routes and C-Van services inside the city of Vancouver, while 21 percent ($15.8 million) paid for services in Clark County’s urban growth area and about 9 percent ($6.8 million) went to services in the small cities.

Florip said this accounting can skew what’s actually happening on bus routes within the system when, for instance, a Camas resident rides a bus in Vancouver or a Battle Ground resident hops on a bus in Ridgefield. What’s more, Florip said, the transit agency is trying to increase its services outside Vancouver’s city limits.

“C-Tran has significantly expanded service levels in the smaller jurisdictions in recent years,” Florip said.

In 2022, the agency launched The Current, an on-demand rideshare service in Camas, La Center, Ridgefield and Washougal. The service expands to Battle Ground this month.

“It’s only been operating for a few years but has been very well received,” Florip said. “The Camas-Washougal service zone is the busiest … on The Current.”

C-Tran also added a fixed-bus route to Ridgefield in 2022 and one to La Center — with a stop at the Cowlitz Indian Tribe’s ilani casino — in 2025. Florip said the agency “has invested additional trips or higher frequency on several existing routes serving the smaller jurisdictions in recent years, including Route 7 in Battle Ground, Route 47 in Battle Ground and Yacolt, Route 92 in Camas and Washougal, and Route 48 in Ridgefield and La Center.”

The small cities could continue to see expanded C-Tran services over the next two decades, Florip said.

“C-Tran is currently conducting outreach across all jurisdictions to gather feedback on the C-Tran 2045 long-range plan and the collective vision for the future of public transportation in Clark County,” Florip said.

The agency is still collecting public feedback on its 2045 vision, Florip said, and has an online open house available through Sept. 30 at c-tran.com/c-tran2045.