RTA delays move on paratransit stopgap

A Regional Transportation Authority committee on Thursday delayed a decision on whether to bail out the Pace paratransit rides program for the disabled, but reaffirmed its commitment to the federally mandated program, even as it suggested it might face a rate hike.

The move would have taken $25 million in federal capital funds for the RTA and set it aside for Pace paratransit, which RTA Executive Director Stephen Schlickman said is on pace to go broke in October. But as the Chicago Transit Authority is usually allotted 58 percent of the RTA's federal funding, with 34 percent going to Metra and 8 percent to Pace, the board of directors was concerned about the CTA and Metra taking a substantial hit on the diversion.

"Nobody's real happy with it," said Director Dwight Magalis, of Libertyville, "but it is the only source of funding we've found."

Director Michael Rosenberg, of Chicago, led the finance committee's move to delay a decision until July 16, but said it should not be interpreted as a threat to let the program go bust. "At the end of the day, we're going to find a way to fund paratransit," Rosenberg said. "We have to."

Chairman Jim Reilly mentioned the possibility of increasing the price of a paratransit ride to a flat $3 charge across the region. Currently, Chicagoans pay $2.25, those in suburban Cook County pay $3, and those in the collar counties pay $2.50.

Reilly said that would address the budget shortfall and perhaps could be thrown in with funding for a new centralized booking system. "This really has to be an all-inclusive package," he said.

He also pointed to how Pace's actual cost for each trip in the paratransit program is about $40. "I understand that a lot of people with disabilities don't have a lot of money," Reilly said, "but even at $3 it's a very good deal."

The board also addressed $61 million in lost revenues with the economic downturn, funding lost in reduced collections in the sales tax and real-estate-transfer tax.

Yet Schlickman said all the local transit agencies but Pace paratransit were currently operating under their budgets for this year with cuts made in anticipation of the reduced revenues.

The board also voted unanimously to extend Reilly's term as chairman into 2014.