Progress in Springfield

Tuesday's hearing of the House Mass Transit Committee was a good airing of the issues. You can see the AP story here. Speaker Madigan and his chief counsel, Robert Uhe, asked questions for about 90 minutes, and then members of the Committee weighed in as well. The testimony highlighted the following points:

1. The 1983 RTA Act authors only planned for the funding solution to last 5-6 years.
2. Metra, Pace, and CTA all agreed that more funding is needed for regional transit.
3. One consequence of CTA's structural deficit is a significantly underfunded pension plan. In the 1980s and 1990s, in order to keep from reducing service, CTA and its unions agreed to reduce or defer pension contributions. CTA's pension was only 46% funded in January 2004 and is project to run out of funds by 2014. The fund's actuaries project that CTA needs an additional $200 million per year to avoid much more dramatic service or fare changes in the next 5 to 10 years.
4. CTA's fares have increased over 95% since 1983, faster than the rate of inflation. Metra fares have increased just 20%. If CTA had received sufficient funding to hold fares to a 20% increase, today's fare would be just $1.10, and ridership would be 70 million trips higher.
5. The RTA system was set up from the start to require most of the "discretionary" funding to go to CTA, making the term "discretionary" a complete misnomer (not to mention patronizing).
6. The City of Chicago contributes roughly $30 million each year to CTA's operating budget in cash and in-kind contributions (mostly police services), and has contributed over $800 million to CTA's capital budget since 1989.

CTA will continue to make the case in Springfield for increased investment in regional transportation.