October 01, 2025
The following memo was sent on Monday, September 29 to members of the Regional Transit Authority Board of Directors.
Dear Chair Dillard and Members of the RTA’s Ad Hoc Committee on Transit Funding:
We write regarding the urgency of avoiding the region’s transit “fiscal cliff” in the months ahead. While meaningful if not yet complete consensus among stakeholders has been reached on governance reforms, the financial “clock” is ticking. Further, the CTA’s recent/upcoming Budget Town Halls (September 16, 18, and 25) have the potential to “lock in” worst-case scenarios and negative narratives, making it imperative that the RTA act now to insure reform efforts are successful.
As several of us have previously emphasized, an efficient transit system is essential to our region to support economic activity, convey employees to and from their workplaces, and provide residents with reliable access to education, health, and other services—in short, to promote the overall health and vitality of our region. Solving the fiscal crisis facing our transit agencies will benefit the entire region, and we understand that service provision is not free.
However, seeking additional funding can only follow from improved trust between transit system leaders, state and local public officials, transit riders, and taxpayers and a clear focus on key elements of transparency, fiscal accountability, operating efficiencies, and system reliability and safety. A lack of that trust, not to mention the tight end-of-session deadline, ultimately meant that ILGA House Bill 3438’s governance and funding reforms could not get through the legislature in the spring session.
While the RTA has taken some welcome steps—establishing the Ad Hoc Committee on Transit Funding; setting up a website with updates and information on the “fiscal cliff”; and reallocating some future discretionary funding toward CTA to delay the onset of CTA’s budget gap—much more must be done. Chairman Dillard’s September 11 letter to the service board chairs provides some specific examples, and here we echo his points and offer additional ideas:
- First, the RTA and the service boards must develop, share, and implement a comprehensive plan to increase operating efficiency and lower costs. Common threads may include schedule optimization, allowing more efficient use of personnel; bus network redesigns to better align service provided with service demanded within budget; all-door boarding and signal priority for buses; automation where possible; and use of AI to simplify/focus preventative maintenance. These efforts can and should yield material savings, as demonstrated by other agencies around the country. To the extent possible, providing a detailed strategy and list of reasonable, yet aggressive, metrics and aspirational goals for service improvements or new service should be compiled and publicly shared.
- Next, the RTA must facilitate and share updated analysis, forecasts, and assessment of potential revenue options, applying basic principles of efficiency, fairness, transparency, and accountability. Both existing revenue streams (e.g., sales tax revenues) and potential new revenue streams (e.g., special events transit tax) should be analyzed, and the results must be shared with the public. Recent data on sales tax revenue receipts, for example, suggest that the timing of any “cliffs” may have been delayed—but for how long? Providing this data by Fiscal Year (where possible) should be explored to allow legislators and the general public a clear picture into how potential new revenues will align with the new expenditures proposed under HB 3438. Moreover, a welcome addition to the greater mass transit stakeholder community and taxpayers would be a clear and comprehensive list of funding allocation rounds by Fiscal Year under any proposed new governance and funding reform. This would create additional trust, transparency, and accountability as potential new revenues are appropriated.
- A third key step is to assess the potential for changes in fare structures and levels, acknowledging the intermittent history of fare increases in the region; the necessity of raising fares in light of inflationary operating cost increases and overall fiscal pressures; and customer survey evidence highlighting greater values placed on service reliability, cleanliness, and personal safety than on fare levels per se. CTA last raised fares in 2018, and transit riders can and should expect to pay more per ride in 2025 than they paid seven years ago.
- Beyond the reliability, transparency, and accountability measures we are suggesting here, transit riders, policy-makers, and taxpayers need to see a comprehensive, detailed, and cohesive public safety strategy that promises real results and solutions both in the short-term and long-term. As we discuss potential new revenues and reforms, we would like to see a clear plan for how the service boards will be utilizing new revenues to enhance public safety not only from a usability perspective (e.g., better app-based safety tools provided to riders) but from a tangible perspective (e.g., public safety personnel and collaboration amongst government bodies).
- The RTA should also prepare detailed estimates of likely costs associated with provisions of HB 3438 directing establishment of new services (e.g., transit ambassadors and transit safety initiatives) and plans for improving personal safety and security, facility and vehicle conditions and cleanliness, and overall customer satisfaction with transit experiences. The estimates for additional costs should be broken down by Fiscal Year (where possible).
- In addition, the RTA and the service boards should prepare and communicate detailed assessments of prospective service cuts and/or adjustments needed under various financial scenarios, with specifics of service frequency, availability, and geographic coverage spelled out in detail. Keeping the focus on regional transit ridership and service, not just that for one of the service boards, is essential if the worst effects of these potential cuts are to be avoided.
- Broadly speaking, the RTA should also press the service boards on their planned use of pay-go funds and borrowed funds for capital projects, focusing on how these plans affect both finances (debt service burdens and debt capacity) and capital stock conditions (maintenance, “state of good repair” goals, etc.) in the future.
- Putting much of this information together, the RTA should significantly deepen its “Regional Transit Fiscal Cliff Hub” to include a public-facing “dashboard” to show exactly when the “fiscal cliff” will be reached separately for each service board, with regular quarterly or even monthly updates as new data on revenues and expenditures and other information arrive.
Providing and communicating these assessments and analyses will go far towards building trust between the RTA and ILGA; the RTA and state and local public officials; and the RTA and taxpayers. We encourage the RTA and the service boards to be more transparent and forward-looking, providing more detail via regular communications channels, and turning to third parties or consultants to provide financial and operational analysis when needed to convince stakeholders of the “facts” and build trust that is now lacking. With that trust built, the region can avoid the worst effects of the transit “fiscal cliff” we face.
Farzin Parang, Executive Director, BOMA/Chicago
Jack Lavin, President & CEO, Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce
Joe Ferguson, President, Civic Federation
Lou Sandoval, President & CEO, Illinois Chamber of Commerce
Michael Jacobson, President & CEO, Illinois Hotel & Lodging Association
Mark Denzler, President & CEO, Illinois Manufacturers’ Association
Rob Karr, President & CEO, Illinois Retail Merchants Association
Maurice Scholten, President, Taxpayers’ Federation of Illinois
