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Transit official: 'Moment of crisis'
By Richard Wronski
Tribune staff reporter
Published May 3, 2007, 8:31 PM CDT
Frustrated regional transit officials all but conceded Thursday that their strategy for winning a major increase in state funding by building grass-roots consensus has failed so far.
Transportation funding is "not even on anybody's radar" in Springfield, said new Regional Transportation Authority Board member Judy Baar Topinka, a former legislator, state treasurer and gubernatorial candidate.
Transit officials warned that fare increases, service cuts and further diversion of capital funds to pay for day-to-day operating needs will be necessary unless the state legislature heeds calls for new funding.
While reluctant to declare a "doomsday scenario" yet, top officials of the CTA, Metra and Pace joined RTA leaders in asserting that unless legislators act this spring, the agencies will be forced to revise their 2007 budgets that counted on $226 million in state funding for operating costs.
"It's clear northeast Illinois stands on the edge of an abyss," RTA Chairman Jim Reilly said. He predicted that the suburbs and collar counties would feel the brunt of the cuts, as opposed to previous years when the focus of funding shortfalls fell on the CTA. Future transportation projects, such as the suburb-to-suburb STAR rail line, are also jeopardized, Reilly said.
Separately, the seven county chairmen in northeastern Illinois, a coalition of business and labor representatives and the region's comprehensive planning agency on Thursday also reiterated the need for more transportation and infrastructure funding. With only weeks left in the legislative session, the groups urged Gov. Rod Blagojevich and lawmakers to act now.
RTA officials have long endeavored to build grass-roots consensus for a long-term transportation funding program. This was the philosophy behind "Moving Beyond Congestion," the RTA's first strategic plan, which it began formulating more than a year ago.
But on Thursday frustration over their failure to budge legislators or the governor was obvious.Warning that "the moment of crisis in 2007 is upon us," RTA Executive Director Steve Schlickman said the $226 million is vital for the transit agencies to meet their current budgets. In addition, the RTA is calling for $400 million in annual operating funds and $10 billion in new capital funds over the next five years.
Legislators in Springfield have been stymied by Blagojevich's plan for a $7 billion business tax increase to launch his sweeping health-care plan and increase school funding. Blagojevich said transportation would not be considered until the other issues are addressed.
Schlickman called Blagojevich's insistence on levying a gross-receipts tax on business to fund his plans "the boulder in front of us."
Doug Whitley, president of the Illinois Chamber of Commerce and co-chairman of the Transportation for Illinois Coalition, agreed, saying that "when the wheels come off the gross receipts tax," transportation and other issues will be dealt with.
Without new transportation funding by July 1 to plug budget gaps, the commuting public will see higher fares and fewer buses in 2008, if not sooner, officials said. No specific cuts have been proposed yet, but "everything is on the table," Schlickman said.
Metra has already prepared a 2007 contingency budget that diverts $60 million into everyday operations from basic maintenance, replacement of aging rail cars and tracks, and new signals, Executive Director Phil Pagano said.
Continuing to divert capital funds for operating needs will throw Metra back to the late '70s and early '80s, Pagano said. Those were the days when locomotives broke down regularly, rail car windows leaked, cars had holes in the floors and trains were late 40 percent of the time, he said.
If Pace is forced to cut service, suburban residents who have no other option to get to school and work will suffer, Executive Director T.J. Ross said. Cuts would disproportionately affect senior citizens and people with disabilities, who depend on Pace's paratransit service, he said.
The CTA is evaluating service reductions and other steps to close its $110 million budget gap, the agency's new president, Ron Huberman said, adding that the CTA is "weighing all its options."
In a letter to Blagojevich, the business-labor Transportation for Illinois Coalition, the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning and seven county chairmen warned that Illinois faced a crisis due to declining investment in infrastructure.
"Chicago's public transit system is breaking down," the letter stated. "Our highways are among the nation's most congested. Downstate roads and bridges . . . are literally crumbling. And rail bottlenecks and interstate highway congestion in greater Chicago are adversely affecting the region's commerce."
rwronski@tribune.com