Eye On Illinois: Looming transit merger will meet with resistance

Are government consolidation and local control mutually exclusive?

Both causes are popular in Illinois. While the “we have too many taxing bodies” argument tends to be a Republican talking point, both major parties leverage the importance of local control versus state directives to suit a preferred outcome in any given circumstance.

That context hangs over discussions about the future of urban/suburban public transportation, with Metra, Pace and the CTA facing a combined annual budget shortfall of at least $730 million by 2026.

Last October, we looked at the many transit agencies potentially involved in the Chicago Bears’ plans to build a $5 billion stadium complex in Arlington Heights: trains, buses and local, county, state and federal highway funds. Even aside from state and interstate highway dollars, it’s enough of a boondoggle that Metra and Pace fall under the Regional Transportation Authority umbrella, which serves more than 2 million daily riders across six counties with a $3 billion annual operating budget.

The current news comes courtesy of a Daily Herald report on the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning responding to a 2022 General Assembly requirement to figure out a sustainability plan once federal COVID-19 relief money ceases.

In this corner, we have CMAP Executive Director Erin Aleman, who described objectives: “Be bold. Reimagine our transportation system. Focus on ensuring the system is financially viable. Make it stronger than it was before COVID-19. Consider equity, climate change and economic growth.”

And in this corner, CTA President Dorval Carter, with a succinct counterpunch: “The complications of running our transit systems should not be understated. I have a very different customer base and regulatory base than does, say, Metra,”

The average Illinoisan eventually will be on the financial hook somehow, through things like fare and tax hikes, tolls and more, but it’s wise to listen to see if officials can demonstrate whether operational and fiscal efficiency are attainable or two distinct goals in perpetual conflict.

ON THIS DAY: William S. Paley, who revived Columbia Broadcasting System from a fledgling radio chain into the dominant television network of the mid-20th century, was born Sept. 28, 1901, in Chicago to Ukranian immigrants. Paley’s father was a cigar magnate; he sent his son to Western Military Academy in Alton before the family moved to Philadelphia. Paley eventually became an East Coast media icon. The New York Times once wrote of Paley: “He is to American broadcasting as Carnegie was to steel, Ford to automobiles, Luce to publishing and Ruth to baseball.”

For further reading, seek Paley’s memoir, “As It Happened,” and New York Times media reporter Sally Bedell Smith’s “In All His Glory: The Life and Times of William S. Paley and the Birth of Modern Broadcasting.”

• Scott T. Holland writes about state government issues for Shaw Media. Follow him on Twitter @sth749. He can be reached at sholland@shawmedia.com.