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Dillard’s gambit

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Illinois

* My weekly syndicated newspaper column…

A little-noticed bill passed both the Illinois House and Senate that will generate $300 million to $400 million a year for local governments, including $95 million to $127 million for the Regional Transportation Authority.

Senate Bill 3362 will help capture sales tax revenue from more out-of-state retailers and in-state retailers who ship to Illinoisans in out-of-state locations.

The new money is not quite one-fifth of the $730 million “fiscal cliff” that northeastern Illinois’ mass transit agencies are facing starting next fiscal year, but it’s a decent start. A down payment, so to speak. But remember, the $730 million deficit is only for fiscal year 2026. It will rise to $1.2 billion by fiscal year 2031, according to the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning.

Even so, not one Chicago-area transit official mentioned that new money in their testimony to the Senate Transportation Committee last week. Instead, most of them simply demanded lots more money and refused to consider any sort of structural management reforms.

But those structural reforms are very much needed. Just a few years ago, the Chicago Transit Authority and Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot tried to stop a pilot project to cut South Side Metra fares to CTA levels and increase train service on the South Side and south suburbs as well as increase the frequency of some Pace bus service.

Why were they opposed to something that would help people? The CTA believed the proposal would reduce its revenues. So, once the pilot project got off the ground, the CTA refused to provide low-cost transfers between the lines and also prevented riders from using their CTA Ventra cards for Metra fares.

These interagency fights have gone on forever. And while there has been a little progress in cooperation among the CTA, Metra and Pace, it’s mostly because the transit bosses know they have to make a decent show because that horrific fiscal cliff is staring them in the face. If they get the money, they simply cannot be trusted to not revert to their old ways.

“The governance model is not the problem here,” CTA President Dorval Carter defiantly told the committee. The problem, he said, is funding.

Carter’s logic doesn’t quite compute. The CTA is still operating on COVID-era federal subsidies, but rider discontent is rampant. Scheduling is a wreck. Stations, buses and trains are too often dirty. Security is a constant concern, and CTA’s efforts have been a laughable attempt at security theater. Train and bus routes have been slashed. The system is in tatters even with full federal funding.

Also, a lack of capital spending oversight led directly to a recent scandal at Metra that I told you about not long ago. Metra was caught spending tens of millions of dollars on a warehouse purchased outside of any sort of procurement rules.

The only transit chief who told the Senate committee that he understood the stakes was RTA Chairperson Kirk Dillard. “As you said,” he told committee chair Sen. Ram Villivalam, D-Chicago, “There’s going to be no new revenue without reform.”

Dillard is a former gubernatorial aide and a former Republican state senator who faced down huge blowback from his own caucus years ago when he voted to raise sales taxes to fund mass transit. He’s one of the last old-school “governing party” Republicans. And he told me he greatly appreciated the extra state funding this year.

The Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning has suggested two models for transit agency consolidation. One of them is “Integrate the RTA and the service boards into one regional transit entity.” Dillard has fully jumped on that recommendation.

Dillard told the committee the RTA wants to set regional standards for service and set a regional fare policy, wants greater oversight on capital spending, consolidation of staff, and “There should be a review of board seats to ensure regional and balanced decision makings.”

The problem with that last bit is suburban politicos view this consolidation idea as a Chicago takeover, and Chicago folks think it’s a suburban power grab. Assistant House Majority Leader Marcus Evans, D-Chicago, told the Tribune recently he was “adamantly opposed” to giving suburban officials control over the CTA.

So, Dillard most definitely has his work cut out for him. I think there is an appetite in the General Assembly for more transit funding, even above and beyond the fiscal cliff. But nobody wants to throw good money after bad, and regional mistrust is intense on this topic from all sides.

posted by Rich Miller
Monday, Jul 15, 24 @ 7:40 am

Comments

=== Assistant House Majority Leader Marcus Evans, D-Chicago, told the Tribune recently he was “adamantly opposed” to giving suburban officials control over the CTA. ===

Me too. CTA may need new leadership but I don’t see how giving a bunch of folks out in the suburbs more control is going to improve the CTA.

Comment by ChicagoVinny Monday, Jul 15, 24 @ 7:51 am
Wasn’t that tried in the 1970s. RTA basically controlling all transit in the Chicago area until they created Metra, Pace, and CTA service boards?

Comment by Levois Monday, Jul 15, 24 @ 8:12 am
== …suburban politicos view this consolidation idea as a Chicago takeover, and Chicago folks think it’s a suburban power grab. ==

That’s exactly right. The current governing structure simply does not work, but coming up with a replacement that strikes enough of a regional and political balance to pass the GA is going to be extremely difficult.

Comment by Telly Monday, Jul 15, 24 @ 8:17 am
The problem at CTA is low numbers of riders on many routes. This is because it is perceived as being dangerous. I know people who have no problem taking Metra to downtown, then take Uber or Lyft to their destinations.

Comment by Dupage Monday, Jul 15, 24 @ 9:20 am
Levois- Yes indeed. The RTA referendum in 1974 was viewed as a power grab by Mayor R.J. Daley on behalf of a failing CTA. A huge majority of suburban voters (including me) voted against it, but huge turnout in the city did the trick.

Comment by Friendly Bob Adams Monday, Jul 15, 24 @ 9:33 am
The RTA is a joke. They just do whatever the CTA, Metra, and Pace want them to do. Either eliminate the agency or have it do its job with a truly independent board that is appointed separately from the service board by different officials.

Comment by Just Me 2 Monday, Jul 15, 24 @ 9:47 am
Fire all of them. All the heads, all the boards. Transportation in NE Illinois is a (mangled and leaking) grab bag of cars, buses, and trains wasting time, energy, and money.

I’ve lived in the far western suburbs for over 30 years after relocating from the south side. Nothing has been done - nothing - at a regional scale to comprehensively improve commuting or leisure travel in that time. An extra lane for (more) traffic here. A third rail there. “Sharrows” on crowded streets (or just leaving pedestrians and bikers to their own devices).

Aren’t we all smarter than this? Do the leaders of these organizations pay attention at all? Traffic is worse than ever. Trains are late. There’s no coordination at all between trains and buses. If there is, you can’t depend on it.

Case in point:
For 30 years I’ve been “hoping” (not like I’m holding my breath or anything) to go NE or SE on public transit without having to go downtown. Instead the EJ&E ROW was sold to CN - increasing freight traffic, negatively affecting transit - with no allowance for future transit use. It would have been perfect - a right of way in place to connect Waukegan to West Chicago to Joliet to the south suburbs. I could be in Milwaukee in 90 minutes or at the Dunes in an hour. All of these organizations ignored the possibilities.

They’re a joke. “Give me more money and I’ll fix it.” Note the singular not plural in that statement. They still don’t talk about coordinating. Just more bandaids and while roads keep getting bigger and more crowded.

Fire them all.

Comment by Lefty Lefty Monday, Jul 15, 24 @ 12:09 pm
==- Dupage - Monday, Jul 15, 24 @ 9:20 am:==

Maybe we shouldn’t listen to suburbanites who are scared of their shadows? Just a thought.

Comment by Google Is Your Friend Monday, Jul 15, 24 @ 12:51 pm
Metra’s Board meeting is Wednesday morning, 9:30 am. Supposed ly going to discuss tge Wickes fiasco. My guess is tge Board hopes it goes away. They are as weak as senior management is.

Comment by James the Intolerant Monday, Jul 15, 24 @ 12:53 pm
Lefty - what you’re talking about it the STAR line, and it’s been dead for want of funding for 10+ years. Wiki here: (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suburban_Transit_Access_Route) and image of the proposed route here: (https://img.yumpu.com/18458303/1/500×640/star-line-suburban-transit-access-route-metra-connects.jpg). It’s actually still on CMAP’s 2050 plan, but on the unconstrained list so not eligible for funding.

Suburb to suburb transit is a real challenge. Tollway is talking about bus programs as part of their current strategic plan conversation, but doesn’t feel close. Not sure if people would want to ride that either.

Comment by Riverwalker Monday, Jul 15, 24 @ 1:20 pm
I may (possibly) have spoken elsewhere about this but every future Illinois Senate Transportation listening tour about Chicagoland transit should do 20 minutes on why CTA Service declined so sharply from 2021-2024 as soon as the CTA speakers bring back this “No reforms needed, make with more revenue once our Federal Covid aid billions dry up” folderol.

Comment by ChicagoBars Monday, Jul 15, 24 @ 1:30 pm
==Google @12:51==

The point is Metra does not have the perception of a high crime rate the CTA has. Also, the CTA can result in a long delay to get to where they are going.

Comment by Dupage Monday, Jul 15, 24 @ 6:29 pm