State may reroute gas tax dollars to patch CTA, RTA
SPRINGFIELD -- State lawmakers could vote this week to take taxes suburban motorists pay at the pump and send the cash to the region's train and bus agencies.
It's the latest so-called fix for the CTA and RTA's lingering financial problems, aimed to avert fare hikes and route cuts slated for early next year.
Twice the governor has stepped in at the last minute and found or borrowed money to keep buses and trains running, but each time potentially worsening the ultimate transit cuts if a long-range bailout isn't approved.
Faced with a Jan. 20 "doomsday" deadline, lawmakers are slated to return to the Capitol on Wednesday to again debate what to do. The new wrinkle is the apparently reluctant endorsement of the gas tax idea by House Speaker Michael Madigan, a Chicago Democrat.
"This is not our preferred solution," Madigan said in a letter to lawmakers.
The influential House Speaker had pushed for an increase in the suburban sales tax and a real estate transfer tax in Chicago. But those plans were shot down, with several suburban members saying they don't have enough mass transit service to justify the tax increase.
Plus, Gov. Rod Blagojevich vowed to veto the plan should it ever reach his desk.
The gasoline tax plan emerged with the backing of House Republican leader Tom Cross of Oswego and Blagojevich. It takes the state's portion of the sales tax on gasoline in Chicago and the suburban counties and gives it to the transit agencies rather than sending it to Springfield for spending. The tax for the six-county area generates approximately $385 million annually.
Some suburban lawmakers had argued this plan makes more political sense for them. It is not a tax increase and takes suburban and city dollars and spends them on mass transportation in the suburbs and city.
The downside is it puts a $385 million hole in the state's budget with no immediate agreement on how to fill it at a time when the governor wants expensive expansion of health care programs.
And there's another problem. There's still no deal on a multibillion-dollar statewide construction program that Cross and numerous other lawmakers said had to be part of a transit bailout.
David Dring, Cross' spokesman, said he still wants to see that deal.
Madigan makes no mention of it in his letter.
"The issue at hand is mass transit and now is the time to set aside alternative agendas and embrace this compromise," he said.
Even transit officials have their doubts about the gas tax deal's political viability. As early as last week, RTA Chairman Jim Reilly said he doubted downstate lawmakers could support a plan that would divert cash from statewide programs to the CTA.