TriMet has eliminated 68 positions and laid off 26 people, the latest of several steps by the regional transit agency to close a $300 million budget gap.
The layoffs contributed to a $17.7 million decrease in spending, the agency said in a statement. The agency has also put in place a hiring freeze and cut discretionary spending.
“Layoffs are always a last resort,” TriMet General Manager Sam Desue Jr. said in a statement. “We’ve worked hard to limit them as much as possible, but the financial realities we face made some layoffs unavoidable.”…