Politics

Pritzker Throws Cold Water on Public Transit Revenue Ideas: ‘As It Is, It’s Not Going Forward’

Gov. JB Pritzker on Wednesday expressed skepticism about some of the revenue streams House Democrats pitched in a transit rescue bill filed late Tuesday night.

The effort to shore up Chicago-area public transportation – which faces a more than $230 million estimated deficit next year and ballooning budget gaps in the following years – comes after a revenue-and-reform measure passed by the Illinois Senate this past spring failed to advance in the other chamber.

Among the plans to generate cash for CTA, Metra, and Pace pitched by House Dems this week are a so-called “billionaire’s tax” on unrealized investment gains, raising the existing RTA sales tax, and slapping a 7% tax statewide on entertainment items like event tickets and streaming services.

“They sprung a whole bunch of things that we’ve never seen before, so it’s very hard to evaluate in a short period of time,” Pritzker said while taking questions from the press at an unrelated event. “I think there’s a whole lot of work that the legislature still needs to do.”

Another proposed revenue stream would allow more municipalities outside Chicago to install speed cameras, with 50% of the money going toward transit.

Asked about that provision, Pritzker said flatly that “it’s a bad idea. We’ve had so many problems with speed cameras in the state. There’s been corruption around them. Honestly, I think we need to take a pause.”

Backers of the House bill say their plan would raise as much as $2 billion for public transit, with some $220 million going to downstate systems.

State Reps. Kam Buckner and Eva-Dina Delgado indicated they believed the measure would pass in the House, but its future in the Senate is unclear. That chamber passed its own funding plan in May that included a controversial per-package delivery fee, but it went nowhere in the House.

Delgado said the proposal represents what House Democrats think are the best solutions to pay for public transportation. She said a tax on rideshares, deliveries and real estate transfers that the Senate passed in May were “definitely concerning” to House Democrats.

Sen. Ram Villivalam, D-Chicago, did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the House’s proposal.

The bill would include a series of reforms similar to what the Senate passed this spring to create a stronger oversight board in the region and improve fare and schedule integration.

“We heard the characterization over the last three or four months that this couldn’t be a Chicago bailout,” Buckner told Capitol News Illinois. “So, No. 1, what is in this bill is very clear that it is a transformative transit package for the entire state of Illinois. No. 2, when you look at what we’re asking in order to get to that number … the majority of the dollars are coming from the city of Chicago proper, and then the collar counties.”

While Pritzker has been vocal in support of governance reforms and transit funding, he cautioned that there’s still much work to be done.

“As it is, it’s not going forward,” the governor said. “There’s got to be a lot of discussion between the House and the Senate in order to come up with a final bill.”

Ben Szalinski of Capitol News Illinois contributed to this report. 

Contact Nick Blumberg: [email protected] | (773) 509-5434 | @ndblumberg

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