On Sunday in the wee hours, the Illinois General Assembly adjourned without finalizing a solution to the transit fiscal cliff – the Northeast Illinois transit agencies’ $770 million budget deficit.
While the Senate passed a funding and reform package, it was at 11:45 p.m., and there wasn’t time for the House to debate and vote on it before midnight.
As a result, the transit agencies will have to contemplate service cuts, efficiencies, fare increases, cuts, and layoffs as they prepare budgets for 2026. While this outcome is deeply disappointing, there is still cause for hope.
MOST IMPORTANTLY, THIS IS BY NO MEANS OVER
Given the strong commitments from the Governor, House, and Senate to get this done this year, there is good reason to be optimistic.
Here are some of the successes that have emerged from this fight:
Win #1: The Senate vote sends a very strong message — with affirmative votes coming from leaders across Illinois.
Senators from Chicago, to Cook, DuPage, Will, Kane, and Lake counties, to smaller cities across the state, including Champaign, Moline, Rockford, and Peoria voted to fix and fund transit. We are proud of the Senate and all the leaders who supported this.
Win #2: There is broad agreement around what is needed to transform and modernize our transit the systems. Having already cleared the Senate, we believe the chances are strong that reforms will pass the House.
And the legislation is chock full of changes that will unlock the potential of transit for communities and riders across the region.
Win #3: Key leaders continue to believe that just filling the budget gap doesn’t solve our myriad transit problems. The ask and commitment is still $1.5 billion.
Win #4: Our coalition was very powerful and present. We built credibility, and hard work resulted in getting to work closely on the legislation and fight for a better system — down to the word.
And in those final weeks, we were a force to be reckoned with — thanks to the number of people we had in the state Capitol meeting with legislators and answering their questions.
WHAT’S NEXT
There’s a path forward — just not on the timeline we wanted.
The sticking point is the sources of revenue. Be it $770 million or $1.5 billion or something in between, the state needs to raise new revenues to help cover it.
The governor has said he won’t support any broad-based taxes and the legislature was committed to identifying transportation-related sources of revenue. The sources floated to date — like fees on tolls or deliveries or ride hailing — are generally not liked (but what taxes are liked?).
Fees on transportation-related items like these can support transit while encouraging people to use other modes of transportation, and are an acknowledgement of the toll cars and trucks take on our infrastructures and quality of life.
Once the federal budget is settled, the Illinois legislature and Governor may hold a special session this summer or fall. This is when we hope transit funding will get addressed along with other budget gaps. We are at the ready.
OUR GRATITUDE
We are thankful to work with such committed legislators on this — Senator Villivalam, Representative Delgado, and Representative Buckner and the members of the working groups and committee that have taken transit so seriously.
As many legislators said this past week, this is the most important and biggest legislation they may work on, and vote on, in their careers.
Our legislative champions have been hard working, thoughtful, and stalwart, even in the face of some harmful rhetoric sensationalizing this as a suburban bailout of the city (a negative narrative that stuck and was unfortunately in many headlines), rhetoric that completely misses the point of the reform — to build a regional, rider-centered system.
There is deep support for significant reforms. Legislators know that we will not have the transit system we deserve until we create a structure of governance that promotes collaboration across the region, and until we invest in transit the way it deserves.