Another $10 billion needed for projects, transit leaders warn
When it comes to money to expand train lines, replace aging buses and make other improvements, Metra, Pace and the CTA are running on fumes, transit leaders warned Thursday.
The doom-laden scenario darkened the first meeting for four new Regional Transportation Authority directors, three of them from the suburbs and collar counties.
The board was expanded from 13 to 16 as part of a bailout deal for mass transit in January. The General Assembly approved a sales tax increase to save all three agencies from looming fare hikes, layoffs and service cuts.
But the influx of added revenues -- about $530 million more a year for the three agencies the RTA oversees -- is only for operating expenses, which include items such as salaries and fuel, officials stressed.
About $10 billion is needed for capital projects, RTA planners estimated. The to-do list includes new CTA track to reduce slow zones at a cost of $689.5 million, improvements to CTA rail stations priced at $901 million, and replacing outdated Pace fixed-route buses estimated at $99 million.
Along with such basic needs are mega-projects for Metra such as the STAR line that would link the North, South and West suburbs, and the extension of the Union Pacific Northwest line to Johnsburg.
"Without a capital bill, it will affect every phase of the system, operational and safety," Metra Executive Director Phil Pagano said. "This starts as a pebble and ends up as an avalanche."
CTA President Ron Huberman added, "We've hit the second decade of temporary fixes" to infrastructure problems.
Gov. Rod Blagojevich has proposed a $25 billion capital budget plan. The state's share would be roughly $11 billion with federal and local dollars accounting for the rest. Of that state money, $1 billion is set aside for transit, an amount that is so inadequate it will jeopardize matching federal dollars, RTA Board Chairman Jim Reilly said. He said $3 billion at a minimum is necessary.
Blagojevich budget spokeswoman Kelley Quinn said transit agencies aren't the only ones feeling the pinch.
"The state is facing a $750 million shortfall for fiscal year 2008," Quinn said.
In Springfield, officials emerged from closed-door talks to say there's agreement that a construction plan would need to cover at least $25 billion.
The figure is nearly twice that of then-Gov. George Ryan's 1999 Illinois FIRST construction spending spree that was financed with higher alcohol taxes and vehicle fees.
Exactly how this latest proposal -- stalled for years -- would be funded remains uncertain. Former Republican U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert told reporters that gambling expansion was a good place to start looking. Proposals bandied about the Capitol would let existing casinos expand and add casinos in Chicago, its South suburbs and Waukegan.
Hastert, along with Southern Illinois University President Glenn Poshard, a Democrat, have been asked by Blagojevich to tour the state to drum up support for state-sponsored construction and help negotiate a deal.
Although representatives from the Democratic and Republican House and Senate leaders sat in on the meeting, Reilly, a Springfield veteran, was pessimistic about a capital program's chances.
"It's no secret the relationship between the four leaders and governor are even worse than they were a year ago," he said. "If you don't like slow zones now, wait until we have no capital program."
Joining the board Thursday were new directors: Jan Carlson, former Kane County board member; the Rev. Tyrone Crider, a former leader at Operation PUSH who lives in South suburban Cook County; McHenry County's former auditor Albert Jourdan; and representing Will County, J.D. Ross, who previously served as Joliet Junior College president. This marks the first time Kane, Lake, McHenry and Will counties have individual representatives.
The new directors will be paid $25,000 a year.