In Seminole County, Florida, tensions flared during a recent budget workshop as county commissioners expressed strong concerns over the financial direction of the LYNX transit system. The primary issues at hand were the increasing costs of paratransit services, a revised funding formula, and the county’s ongoing involvement in Central Florida’s regional transit network.
Tiffany Hawkins, the CEO of LYNX, presented the agency’s draft budget for fiscal year 2027 to the commissioners, which included a total request of $11,745,652. This amount, covering both operational and capital expenses, marked a slight 1.03% rise from the $11,625,861 allocated in fiscal year 2026. Commissioners were quick to highlight that despite this budget increase, there had been a significant cut in the county’s fixed bus routes.
Budget overview
The proposed operating budget for LYNX in FY2027 is $226,842,258, reflecting a 4.53% increase from the previous year’s budget of $217,008,696. The majority of the budget—75%—is funded by local partners, with property taxes accounting for 92% of this local funding.
During her presentation, Hawkins pointed out several critical budget assumptions, such as maintaining service levels from FY2026, refraining from fare hikes pending a comprehensive fare equity analysis, and ongoing efforts to update the fleet to better align with operational needs.
What Seminole County’s numbers actually show
An in-depth examination of the budget documents reveals a noteworthy shift in how Seminole County’s funds are being utilized.
Seminole County’s total operational contribution is set to increase from $11,428,577 in FY2026 to $11,620,724 in FY2027, approximately a $192,000 rise. However, it is the allocation of these funds that is causing frustration among commissioners.
Fixed-route and NeighborLink funding from Seminole County is dropping sharply — from $5,233,918 in FY2026 to $2,905,685 in FY2027, a decrease of more than $2.3 million. That reduction directly reflects the county’s decision to eliminate the majority of LYNX bus routes and launch its own on-demand SCOUT service.
At the same time, Seminole County’s paratransit contribution is surging in the opposite direction — from $6,194,659 in FY2026 to $8,715,039 in FY2027, an increase of more than $2.5 million, or roughly 40.7%.
The net result is a county paying about a higher total amount for significantly fewer bus routes, and commissioners say that math does not add up.
For comparison, Orange County’s total operating contribution is rising from $92,178,040 to $105,983,161 — an increase of nearly $13.8 million — driven by growth on both the fixed-route and paratransit sides.
FY2025 ridership recap, microtransit transition
FY2025 marked the final year of historical fixed-route service in Seminole County before leaders eliminated most bus routes and launched SCOUT — the county’s on-demand rideshare service with no fixed routes and no bus stops. Riders choose when and where to go, and a SCOUT vehicle comes to them. Five fixed bus routes continue to serve the county through LYNX.
“Currently, we are — with the routes that are still providing service in Seminole County — about 1,600 boardings per day,” Hawkins said. “That is according to our automated passenger counts.”
“We are stagnant at this point,” Hawkins acknowledged, citing weather challenges in January and February as well as summer seasonality as contributing factors to flat ridership numbers.
Chairman Andria Herr told News 6 there is an important distinction in how ridership is measured between fixed-route buses and microtransit — one that she said makes comparisons complicated.
“Bus ridership is measured in terms of a trip, not in terms of a human,” Herr said. “A human can be on four buses in a day — that’s a four. I don’t know that I’ve moved one human. The advantage to micro transit is with micro transit, I know I’m moving a human at a time from their origination to their final destination in most cases.”
Paratransit costs draw scrutiny
Commissioner Jay Zembower raised detailed concerns about the cost of ACCESS LYNX, the agency’s paratransit service for Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) passengers and Transportation Disadvantaged riders.
In FY2025, ACCESS LYNX logged 124,629 trips in Seminole County, covering more than 104,924 revenue miles. Hawkins noted that of approximately 125,000 trips, roughly 94,000 were ADA trips within the federally required three-quarter-mile service corridor, about 10% fell outside that boundary and the remaining approximately 30,000 were Transportation Disadvantaged program trips.
Zembower cited a sharp decline in ridership alongside an equally sharp rise in costs — a combination he said demanded answers.
“Since SCOUT, our total trips fell from 31,479 in quarter one to 28,191 in quarter two — a 10.7% decrease,” Zembower said. “Transportation Disadvantaged trips had a 5.5% decrease. ADA paratransit trips had a 12.2% decline.”
Despite those declines, costs have continued to rise. In FY2027, the total paratransit operating cost for Seminole County is projected to rise to $8.7 million, compared to $6.2 million in FY2026.
“Can you explain how we are rapidly going in this direction?” Zembower asked.
Hawkins said she did not have the specific figures in front of her and offered to follow up with staff. She noted that a portion of the FY2027 cost increase is tied to a change in how administrative overhead is allocated under a recently amended funding model formula — and that without that change, the paratransit contribution would have been $6.9 million rather than $8.72 million.
Funding model shift fuels frustration
Much of the commissioners’ frustration centered on a change to LYNX’s Regional Funding Model — a shift that reallocated a portion of administrative overhead from fixed-route service to paratransit, based on service hours. The change came after Seminole County significantly reduced its fixed-route footprint.
Herr offered a plain-language explanation of how the change works — and why she believes it was a reaction to Seminole County’s move toward microtransit.
“LYNX reformulated the funding strategy so that more of the operational expenses are allocated on the paratransit side of the house, which is the portion of the program that we didn’t move from,” Herr said. “Any of the operational expenses that shifted into paratransit would have been carried by the operational side, and because of our reduced routes, would have netted a reduction to us.”
She acknowledged LYNX’s stated rationale but remained skeptical when questioned by News 6.
“Their perspective is that they had never allocated the operational expenses between the two appropriately,” she said. “I think the change in the funding model was reactionary to potential fear for future.”
Herr said the funding model change appeared to undercut the county’s cost-saving rationale for reducing fixed-route service in the first place.
She also pointed out that while Osceola County saw similar overhead cost increases under the new model, Orange County appeared to benefit — a characterization Hawkins did not dispute.
“They’re paying more, but they didn’t decrease service. We’re paying more and we decreased service,” Herr said of Osceola and Seminole counties. “And so, Orange benefited.”
“That is a way to look at it,” Hawkins said.
LYNX responded to the commission’s criticism in a statement to News 6, saying the funding model update was a necessary and board-approved response to the county’s decision to scale back fixed-route service.
“We understand Seminole County’s concern,” said Matt Friedman, LYNX director of marketing communications. “When the county eliminated the majority of our bus routes in January, an updated funding model became necessary. This change in process was unanimously approved by our board to better distribute administrative costs, which are lower than the statewide average, for services provided to each funding partner.”
Commissioners weigh future with LYNX
The budget work session left Herr questioning not just the numbers, but the entire partnership.
“It is very obvious to us that we have been questioning these numbers for years with difficulty in obtaining ridership,” Herr said. “Quite frankly, this doesn’t feel like a partnership anymore. It used to because we sat quietly and never questioned anything.”
Herr said she no longer views herself as a supporter of LYNX.
“If I could get out entirely, I would, because I think that this was punitive, and I share that with my partners on that board so that it’s coming from my mouth to their ears,” she said. “I am just really disappointed at the lack of regionalism with this, and I appreciate that there is a perception that we were not regional in our thought process to pull out but we were forced into that position with unsustainable budget increases.”
In an interview after the meeting, Herr said the county has felt like a peripheral player within the regional system — and that may no longer be a workable arrangement.
“We are one vote that often gets overlooked,” Herr said. “The conversations don’t necessarily focus on the peripheral counties. They focus on the main core, as they should — that’s where the main ridership is, Orange County, city of Orlando. We are this piece that is attached to that model, and maybe we’ve outgrown it.”
Commissioner Amy Lockhart said Seminole County has different transportation needs than other local partners.
“I do believe putting all the cards on the table that we need to prioritize this next legislative session and upcoming sessions to talk about legislative language changes that moves us from being required to participate in the Central Florida Regional Transportation Authority to ‘may,’” she said. “The ‘shall’ to a ‘may’ would give us much greater flexibility. I think that is something we really need to talk about seriously.”
Commissioner Zembower said the commission’s concerns stem from their responsibility to taxpayers.
“This is not about you,” Zembower said to Hawkins. “Please understand that this is about our job as decision makers who are tasked with protecting the taxpayers’ dollars in Seminole County.”
Hawkins committed to providing detailed ridership and service-hour data to the county. Commissioners requested that county staff work with LYNX to gather that data.
Seminole County is planning a follow up work session on the county’s proposed budget for 2027 in July.
