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Transit heads again ask state for funding help By andrew adams Capitol News Illinois
It was standing room only in a downtown Chicago committee hearing Tuesday as activists, transit experts and lobbyists hung on the words of the region’s transit agency chiefs. Public transit has become an increasingly contentious issue in Chicagoland as the Regional Transportation Authority – the funding body which oversees Pace suburban bus routes, Metra regional rail lines and the Chicago Transit Authority – has reported a looming “fiscal cliff” in 2026. While the agencies are currently buoyed by pandemic-era funding and temporary allowances in state law, the agencies will face a cumulative annual budget gap of $730 million in operating costs beginning in 2026, according to the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning. “The preliminary analysis from our consultant shows that the fiscal cliff scenario, without state funding assistance, could wipe out 30 to 40 percent of the service in northeastern Illinois,”
RTA Board Chair Kirk Dillard, a former state senator, said in Tuesday’s hearing. Under that worst-case projection, the fiscal cliff would cause a $2.4 billion drop in regional GDP in the first year and impact up to 25,000 jobs. But Dillard painted a much rosier picture if the state increases its annual support for the transit agencies: $2.5 billion annual growth in GDP and the addition of 27,000 new jobs. “You’ve got a choice to make,” he told lawmakers Tuesday. But some lawmakers in the General Assembly are unwilling to give carte blanche to the transit agencies, which have been criticized for service cuts, safety issues and poor workforce development since the early days of the pandemic. Sen. Ram Villivalam, D-Chicago, the chair of the Senate Transportation Committee, called Tuesday’s hearing – the first in what will be a series meant to investigate possible improvements to public transit in Illinois. He said there will be “no votes
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Gov. JB Pritzker is pictured in a file photo in his Illinois State Capitol office. The governor traveled to the During a Senate Transportation Committee hearing Tuesday, Regional Transportation Authority Board Chair Kirk Dillard looks at the heads of Chicagoland’s transit agencies: Metra CEO James Derwinski, Chicago Transit Authority President Dorval Carter and Pace Executive Director Melinda Metzger. (Capitol News Illinois photo by Andrew Adams)