Who pays what for transit?

One of the questions raised in Springfield has been the level of funding provided by different municipalities to Pace, Metra, and CTA. The Illinois Department of Transportation initiated a review of all 3 service boards specifically targeted at municipal contributions, which is an important way to think about RTA funding.

For example

• Pace provides a variety of services 100% paid for by local governments.
• CTA pays Pace about $6 million each year for various interagency initiatives.
• Many municipalities (including the City of Chicago) help build or maintain Metra properties.
• The City of Chicago owns the subway tunnels and the Orange Line, and has contributed over $800 million in capital funding since 1989.
• The City of Chicago also pays directly for CTA security costs related to the CTA police force, over $20 million annually.

These municipal contributions must be weighed against the University of Illinois/Illinois House study (PDF) that showed a significant imbalance between service and funding. When measured by passenger miles (the cumulative number of miles traveled by all passengers)

• Chicago itself, when you include the police force expenses, gets almost exactly the transit that is paid for in Chicago ($654M vs. $656M).
• Suburban Cook County pays $103 million that it does not receive.
  
• The collar counties (DuPage, Kane, Lake, McHenry & Will) receive approximately $100 million in transit that they do not pay for.

While some might argue that the simplest solution to this disparity -- and to possible service cuts -- would be to force each county or municipality to pay for the service it gets, that could actually undermine the regional nature of our system. Based on passenger miles, that would force major cuts in service to suburban areas that are demanding more transit, not less. It would also completely ignore the fact that

• People work and shop across political lines.
• Air pollution doesn’t recognize county borders. Moreover, neither does the federal government, which ties transportation funding to our entire metropolitan region’s air quality.
• Our economy functions as a region. Businesses and workers aren’t constrained by county borders, we all work together and improve economic opportunities for everyone.

The Chicagoland region is now the second most congested city in the country, costing us $4 billion each year in wasted time and fuel. That’s a $1,000 traffic tax on every rush-hour commuter. It’s time to fix the problem.