‘Huge opportunity’ or ‘stealing’ from suburbs? Senate debates funding plan to save transit

Illinois senators on Thursday debated an ambitious plan to save public transit from a massive budget shortfall with ideas that include a 50 cent toll increase as well as extension of Chicago real estate taxes and rideshare fees to the suburbs.

Several Collar County leaders called the revenue suggestions — to fix a $770 million budget hole Metra, Pace and the CTA are facing in 2026 — punitive.

House Bill 3438 would replace the Regional Transportation Authority with an empowered Northern Illinois Transit Authority.

“It’s a comprehensive piece of legislation aimed at providing safe, reliable, accessible, integrated and economically impactful transit to our communities for viable long-term solutions,” Transportation Committee Chairman Ram Villivalam said at a Senate hearing.

DuPage County Chair Deb Conroy, however, told the Daily Herald she felt “blindsided.”

“They’re basically stealing $185 million from the Collar Counties to pay for this,” she said.

A similar measure also proposing a Northern Illinois Transit Authority but without financing, Senate Bill 2111, emerged Wednesday. “The goal is that we’re going to align both bills,” said supporter Democratic Rep. Eva-Dina Delgado of Chicago.

NITA would provide significant oversight of Metra, Pace and the CTA, setting fares and allocating budgets.

To cover the budget shortfall and allow for system expansion and improvements, the legislation would empower NITA to impose transit support fees of 50 cents on toll transactions throughout the metro region.

Bill 3438 also proposes a public charging station fee for EVs at 6 cents per kilowatt-hour, and extending Chicago’s real estate transfer tax and 10% fee on rideshares into the Cook County suburbs and the Collar Counties.

In Chicago, buyers and sellers pay $3 in taxes for every $1,000 of a real estate transaction. If extending the tax to the suburbs is approved, revenues from the Collar Counties would be used for transit-oriented developments and 50% of suburban Cook proceeds would go toward CTA pension debt.

Another revenue item would allow NITA to claw back a portion of the RTA sales tax, which is dispensed to DuPage, Kane, Lake, McHenry and Will counties for transportation and public safety.

RTA sales tax money helps pay for services including transportation and the sheriff’s office in DuPage, Conroy said. “They would take that money away and we would never see it again — $72 million (for DuPage). We would have massive layoffs.”

The RTA has warned of 40% service cuts to trains and buses if financial aid isn’t approved by the end of legislative session on Saturday.

The reductions could mean suspending service on four of eight CTA train lines, canceling CTA bus routes and “devastating cuts to Pace and Metra as well,” Villivalam said.

“There’s times where it takes a crisis for us to act. I would argue that instead of going over the cliff, we have a huge opportunity to build a bridge and provide certainty for our business community, the 1.5 million people who ride the transit system every day and the 17,000 workers that work in public transit across the region,” the Chicago Democrat said.

The RTA has 13 members while NITA would have 20. Five would be appointed by the Chicago mayor, five by the Illinois governor — including one from the suburbs north of Devon Avenue — five by the Cook County Board president, and five by the chairs of the DuPage, Kane, Lake, McHenry and Will county boards.

“This is a billion-dollar bailout for Mayor Brandon Johnson being paid for by suburban taxpayers without giving them a real voice,” Sen. Don DeWitte, of St. Charles said. “It’s a simple math problem. Chicago and Cook County get the majority of the board votes. Suburbs are outvoted on just about everything — fares, service, cuts, tax increases; that’s not reform. That’s a takeover.”

Other bill provisions include establishing a unified fare system by 2030, creating a transit ambassador program and transitioning to a zero-emissions bus fleet.

A task force led by the Cook County sheriff’s office would develop a transit police department to address crime on the CTA. And, NITA would have authority to fire the CEOs of the agencies.

· Capitol News Illinois wire services contributed to this report.