One of the most important legislative debates next year will be
about reforming, restructuring and finding a way to fund northeast Illinois’
public transportation system. Statewide taxes could possibly be raised to
pay for this, so you should pay attention no matter where you live.
Gov. JB Pritzker has said he’s not endorsing current legislation
which would force the consolidation of the various transit systems. The
Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning has two separate proposal about how to
accomplish a reorganization ahead of an impending “transit fiscal cliff” of
$730 million in FY26 that will rise to $1.2 billion over the following five
years.
The public appears open to at least the concept of consolidation,
according to a new poll conducted by Global Strategy Group for the Illinois
Clean Jobs Coalition, which supports transit agency consolidation. The
polling and consulting firm works for Gov. Pritzker’s campaign, among several
others in Illinois.
According to the poll of 600 likely voters conducted Sept. 16-19, respondents backed the general idea 46%-21%. That’s more than
two-to-one, but a third (33 %) didn’t know enough to say.
Transit riders supported consolidation 55%-20%, non-riders supported
it 34%-23%, Chicagoans supported consolidation 54%-27%, collar county voters backed
it 53%-19%, suburban Cook County folks approved it 49%-21% and labor union
households supported consolidation 42%-18%.
But this isn’t really surprising. People naturally favor
broad concepts like consolidating government agencies, even if they know
nothing about the specifics. And that sentiment intensifies if they’re
told consolidation will save big bucks.
Seventy-two percent told the pollster that potential consolidation savings
of $200-$250 million a year was a convincing argument. The savings range is
claimed by the Illinois Clean Jobs Coalition, but the Regional Transportation
Authority says they have no idea where those savings numbers are coming
from.
Half of Chicagoans, by the way, gave the Chicago Transit Authority
a favorable rating, while 48% had an unfavorable view of the
system. That’s somewhat surprising, given all the negative press about the
CTA over the past few years. The group refused to provide full toplines or
crosstabs.
Also last week, leaders of the Chicago-area public transit
agencies gathered together on WTTW’s “Chicago Tonight” program and for the
umpteenth time publicly rejected any managerial reforms while demanding a $1.5
billion increase in taxpayer funding.
That didn’t go over well with Sen. Ram Villivalam, D-Chicago, who
chairs the Senate Transportation Committee, is sponsoring the consolidation
bill and has held numerous hearings on the topic.
“I have said from the beginning that we need to provide adequate
funding for public transit,” Sen. Villivalam told me. “It is good for our
local economy, public health, quality of life, mitigating climate impact and
much more.”
However, the Villivalam continued, “With that said, I have heard
from colleague after colleague. The appetite to vote on this unprecedented
amount of funding without reform is just not there. Period.”
More from Villivalam: “We need specificity on how they plan
on using funds to make public transit more safe, reliable, accessible,
coordinated, environmentally conscious and economically strategic. There must
be accountability and transparency.”
He’s not wrong on any of this. And the word “coordinated” is
important because the transit agencies have long resisted a seamless payment
system and synchronized scheduling, which is a major benefit of Germany’s
transit system governance, known as verkehrsverbünde.
Germany’s regional transportation associations don’t actually
operate that county’s innumerable transit systems. Instead, the
associations simply enforce and oversee unified fares and ticketing, and they
synchronize the transit systems’ schedules. That might possibly be where
the reforms here are heading, and a fact-finding trip to Germany is apparently
in the works.
Even organized labor is taking a look at the German model, I’m
told.
Despite strong public statements this year against consolidation
from the Illinois AFL-CIO and the Chicago Federation of Labor, organized labor
has worked over the past few months to bring together a multitude of smallish
transit unions to quietly work on a solution.
Bringing those union locals together wasn’t an easy task by any
means, because unions often side with their employers’ Statehouse
positions. The pitch from above was to organize against any attempts to
divide and conquer them by peeling off a few of the larger unions to support a
solution that would benefit some and not others. That approach is
apparently working.
The union locals want lots more money for transit. But the
German governing model is something that could work for them because the
various agencies would continue running their systems. Still, it’s way too
early to say the unions could jump on board.
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