This blog post presents an overview of the Chicago Transit Authority’s FY2022 operating budget, including a summary of how federal stimulus funds were used to balance the budget, and an update on its recent $350 million debt issuance. The Chicago Transit Authority, like other transit agencies around the country, faces serious challenges to its future operations and fiscal solvency in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Federal funds have been critical in maintaining transit service in the…
The Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) released a $3.5 billion, five year FY2022-FY2026 capital plan in October 2021. The CTA prepares a multi-year, comprehensive capital improvement plan (CIP) at the same time as its annual operating budget. It is included in the operating budget book. The first year of the CIP is the capital budget for that fiscal year. The CTA capital budget for FY2022 is projected to be nearly $1.1 billion. This an 8.1%, or $80.9 million, increase from the original FY2021…
The Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) released a $3.4 billion, five year FY2021-FY2025 capital plan in October 2020. The CTA prepares a multi-year, comprehensive capital improvement plan (CIP) at the same time as its annual operating budget. It is included in the operating budget book. The first year of the CIP is the capital budget for that fiscal year. The CTA capital budget for FY2021 is projected to be $995.4 million. This a 34.4%, or $522.9 million, decrease from the original FY2020 capital…
On August 12, 2020 the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) approved Ordinance 020-070 amending its FY2020 budget to incorporate $690.1 million of the CARES Act funding it received from the federal government in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The CARES Act funding will help offset the decline in system generated revenue and public funding.[1] This is the first time in nearly a decade that the CTA has had to amend its operating budget mid-year due to a drastic change in revenues.[2] The CTA…
The Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) has historically received a reduced fare reimbursement, or subsidy, from the State of Illinois for providing free and discounted rides to eligible riders including seniors, people with disabilities, military and students. The CTA provides nearly 100 million free and reduced-fare trips annually, which amounts to more than $100 million in foregone revenue.[1] The reduced fare subsidy is a partial reimbursement from the State of Illinois for the discounted…
2019 Civic Federation Legislative Priorities The Civic Federation's legislative priorities for 2019 include public employee pension reforms, consolidation of local government units in Illinois, enacting policies to rationalize the property tax system, creation of a Local Government Protection Authority, requiring the State of Illinois to build a rainy day fund, development and implementation of a capital improvement plan and improved…
Click here to read the full report. The Civic Federation supports the Chicago Transit Authority’s proposed FY2019 operating budget of $1.6 billion. Despite continued shortfalls in state funding, the proposed budget does not include any fare increases or service cuts. While supporting the budget as a reasonable one-year plan, the Federation has significant concerns about the CTA’s ongoing decline in overall ridership and a lack of state funding. Among other recommendations, the…
The Civic Federation conducts an analysis of the Chicago Transit Authority’s annual proposed budget each year. This analysis includes two measures used to assess CTA’s productivity over time: labor cost per actual unlinked passenger trip and operating expense per passenger mile.[1] The data used to calculate the productivity measures are obtained from the annual budget documents. As discussed in previous years, the labor cost per unlinked passenger trip is a metric in which a lower dollar…
Click here to read the full report. The Civic Federation opposes CTA's proposed FY2018 budget because it relies on overly optimistic projections of restored funding from the State of Illinois and embarks on a dangerous path of borrowing for operational expenses to close the prior year shortfall. As an alternative path to generate additional revenue, balance the budget and maintain service levels, the Civic Federation recommends implementing increased fares on el trains and express buses…
The Civic Federation recently released its analysis of the CTA’s FY2017 Budget. The Civic Federation supports the Chicago Transit Authority’s FY2017 operating budget of $1.52 billion because it holds base fares flat and continues to make strategic capital investments despite ongoing state funding uncertainty. As part the Civic Federation’s annual analysis of the CTA budget, the Federation uses two measures to assess CTA’s productivity over time: labor cost per actual unlinked passenger trip…
