The Chicago Tribune headline today pretty much confirms the reason the Regional Transportation Authority was created in 1974:
Back in 1974 CTA Director Milton Pikarsky said passage of the RTA referendum was needed in order to keep Chicago Transit Authority trains running through the night.
A similar income transfer scheme is now being advanced to justify hiking taxes on suburbanites and Downstaters.
The article quotes an RTA memo:
“This year’s approach reflects a one-time allocation method proposed only for 2026 This deviation is mainly to allow time for the Illinois General Assembly to act on long-term sustainable funding for transit in the Chicago region that averts the impending fiscal cliff.”
Continuing the reporter writes, “If board members approve the measure, the CTA would receive all of the RTA’s discretionary funding in 2026, and Metra and Pace would receive none.”
Metra and Pace rolled over and played dead.
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Found on Evanston Now:
There was some pushback to the transfer.
“An RTA board member from McHenry County, Brian Sager, said “this is real money which Metra is sacrificing. What will Metra and PACE give up,” he asked, by shifting some of their money to the CTA?
“The answer was that the money comes out of operating funds, not capital construction nor equipment purchases. Sager ultimately joined his RTA colleagues in voting ‘yes’ on the transfer.
“RTA director Redden also said that Metra leadership was ‘on board’ with the switch.
“CTA, by the way, does not serve McHenry County.
“And that’s one of the issues facing Chicagoland transit — competing interests from different communities.”
