Lawmakers grill mass transit leaders as clock ticks toward funding ‘cliff’

SPRINGFIELD — Public transportation reform in the Chicago area is at the top of state lawmakers’ to-do list this spring, but exactly what that reform will look like remains unclear.

Metra, the Chicago Transit Authority and Pace, along with the Regional Transportation Authority, which oversees some aspects of the Chicago area’s transit systems, collectively face a $771 million funding shortfall in 2026 as federal pandemic dollars run out. That includes inflation, according to the RTA, which previously said the shortfall would be $730 million.

Without money to fill that gap, transit users could face up to a 40% reduction in services, RTA Executive Director Leanne Redden said.

The transit agencies were peppered with questions from lawmakers during a House hearing this week about their shortfalls in planning, organization and execution of services. Lawmakers have said for months the agencies will not receive new state funding without major reforms to their operations happening first.

In a particularly tense exchange, state Rep. Rita Mayfield, D-Waukegan, ripped into RTA Chair Kirk Dillard.

“I think that we need to blow up the RTA, totally blow it up, get rid of everyone, because again, systemic incompetence for the last 50 years,” Mayfield said. “I don’t want to keep anyone other than the janitors and the basic clerical staff. Anybody in a leadership position needs to be removed.”

What has been proposed

Various reform plans have been proposed, including some from transit activists and labor organizations. Dillard is pushing a plan that focuses on empowering the RTA to coordinate more operations between the transit agencies.

Current state law limits the power of the RTA to regional planning, setting standards for the service, developing performance measures, allocating funding, financial oversight, and capital planning. The three agencies that actually provide public transportation are left to determine levels of service, schedules and fares.

“What the RTA’s role is at best is the bully pulpit and trying to coordinate, convene and have conversations if there is no compelling mechanism – financial, statutorily or out of penalties — whereby the RTA can control that outcome,” Redden said.

About 17% of the transit systems’ funding comes from the state, according to the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning. State law mandates half of the funding must come from rider fares, though that requirement has generally been suspended since the pandemic.

Dillard’s plan aims to address some of those areas where transit agencies are left to make their own decisions. Under his proposal, the RTA would gain more power to set fares, including on a unified app. The RTA would also have more control over service coordination and receive quarterly reports from the three systems that would allow the RTA to require improvements in exchange for more funding.

Dillard also said the RTA has identified $100 million in “efficiencies” to provide savings to the agencies.

“We’re not asking just for money,” Dillard said. “We have presented significant reforms that will be there.”

But Mayfield, who chairs the House appropriations committee that oversees transportation, questioned why the RTA is needed.

“I for one will never vote to give you more anything, definitely not more power or more money, because I’ve not seen anything good come out of the RTA,” Mayfield said.

Other lawmakers said regional oversight remains necessary, but significant reforms are needed.

“I believe that we need this regional oversight,” said state Rep. Mary Beth Canty, D-Arlington Heights, a former RTA board member. “My frustration has always come from a place of us not being able to get that in a meaningful way.”

Labor unions have proposed their own plan. The AFL-CIO-led plan calls for more coordination between agencies including universal fare tools, coordinated safety on public transportation and reducing the percentage of the agency’s budget that must come from fares.

State Sen. Ram Villivalam, D-Chicago, has introduced a bill that would merge all the transit agencies into one entity known as the Metropolitan Mobility Authority.

Challenges toward reform

Achieving reform faces numerous challenges and differing opinions among transit leaders and lawmakers. It also faces the financial reality that the state has limited resources to dole out.

Similar-sized transit agencies in other states receive far more state funding than Chicago’s systems. Pennsylvania funds half of Philadelphia’s public transit costs while other systems receive at least a quarter of their funding from the state.

It’s this “chronic underfunding” by Illinois that has made this shortfall worse, Redden said.

Even among the Chicago-area systems, there’s disagreement about how funding should be prioritized between agencies. CTA Chief Financial Officer Tom McKone said the CTA wants a greater share of transit funds for carrying 86% of the region’s daily riders and to provide more service. But lawmakers weren’t sold.

“If we can’t take care of what we have already, how the hell are we going to expand into anything?” said state Rep. John Cabello, R-Machesney Park. “It just doesn’t make sense. It doesn’t make sense at all. I mean if we can’t pay for what we have today, how can we expand?”

There’s also disagreement between the agencies about what the governing structure should look like as some push to consolidate transit governance.

“This issue, in our opinion, is not from a governance issue,” CTA Acting President Nora Leerhsen said. “This discussion of consolidation is not something that we think would solve the issues that we know riders want to see solved, from CTA’s perspective. Consolidation would bring additional administrative burdens that would in fact exacerbate some of the inequities that we’ve seen.”

Consolidation could also cause problems at Metra, CEO Jim Derwinski said.

“I do believe because we represent six counties, because the RTA taxing region represents so many communities, an oversight board that can see a regional perspective is required,” Derwinski said.

Metra is also bound by other agreements, contracts and federal railroad laws. Many operations that appear to the average rider to be run by Metra are actually run by freight companies that own Metra’s rail lines. For example, employees who work on the BNSF Metra line to Aurora are BNSF employees and the passenger schedules on the Milwaukee District North and West lines to Fox Lake and Elgin are dictated by Canadian Pacific, according to Derwinski.

“It almost sounds like, I’m not going to say impossible, but close to impossible, for you to actually be a part of some big service board,” said state Rep. Will Davis, D-Homewood.

Logistical questions about a governing structure are only part of the issue. The other question that must be addressed is how the budget shortfalls, which RTA officials said will grow beyond $771 million in subsequent years, will be addressed, particularly as the state faces its own financial constraints.

Gov. JB Pritzker’s proposed $55.2 billion state budget for the next fiscal year raises spending by just 1% across most of state government but doesn’t include any new spending for public transportation.

“Who’s covering how much of that is a negotiation that will take place,” Pritzker told reporters after his budget address. “So it’s near impossible for us to put a number into a budget, to make a determination of what the state should be putting forward when we don’t yet know.”

The Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning has recommended various funding mechanisms including raising the RTA sales tax in the six-country region, a sales tax on services, and higher tolls, vehicle registration fees or downtown Chicago parking taxes.

“As a former legislator and a former state senator in this body, I know how difficult it is to support new revenue,” Dillard said.

Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.