In the wake of Chicago Transit Authority’s threats to reduce service, public officials from Evanston aldermen to Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich are trying to keep CTA on track.
With three months until the new cuts are scheduled to take effect, the area’s other transit agencies, Pace and Metra, are still unsure how to react.
The CTA board voted last week to cut Purple Line express trains, eliminate most Evanston bus service and lengthen waiting times starting July 17, unless it gets relief from the state for its $55 million operating deficit.
To prevent CTA cuts, Blagojevich proposed a new tax on corporate software bulk purchases, said Gerardo Cardenas, the governor’s Chicago press secretary.
When corporations buy software in bulk through agreements with manufacturers, they currently do not have to pay sales tax, Cardenas said.
“If the legislature approves and eliminates this tax loophole, we would generate revenue of about $65 million a year and that revenue could be used to fund public transportation,” Cardenas said. “It could eliminate most of the problems CTA is facing, if not all of them.”
Blagojevich is asking CTA to work with him in getting the legislature to approve this proposal, Cardenas said.
CTA President Frank Kruesi and board chairwoman Carole Brown plan to attend the next meeting of the Illinois State House of Representatives’ Mass Transit Committee on April 26, at which lawmakers will discuss the 1983 formula that distributes sales tax revenue to CTA, Metra and Pace, said CTA spokeswoman Noelle Gaffney.
The city of Evanston is also joining the effort to prevent CTA cuts. Ald. Steven Bernstein (4th) said the aldermen directed City Manager Julia Carroll to push legislators for more CTA funding.
But the city will not be able to do much if service cuts go into effect.
“We have to impose on our legislators to go down there and get us some money,” Bernstein said. “That’s where it’s at.”
The Mass Transit Committee issued a report last week stating the 1983 formula does not provide appropriate funding. For example, 55 percent of sales taxes generated in suburban Cook County for transit go to Metra, 30 percent to CTA and the rest to Pace. But Metra’s share of all morning transit passengers in the region is only 22 percent, while CTA’s share is 60 percent, according to the report.
The report also found that tax revenue from suburban Cook County is subsidizing transit service in the Chicago area’s outlying counties. Cook County transit sales tax is 1 percent; the outlying counties’ rate is a quarter percent.
Still, legislators in the those counties think they are overtaxed, said Rick Martin, an organizer of activist group Evanston’s Transportation Future. Tensions between suburban Republicans and Chicago Democrats might strain the debate.
“There’s so much political infighting,” Martin said. “It’s going to be a huge challenge.”
CTA service cuts could impact Pace, which operates several bus routes in Evanston. Pace staff is examining CTA’s proposed service changes, but it is too early to tell whether Pace will modify its service in response to CTA’s actions, said Michael Bolton, Pace’s deputy executive director for strategic services.
Vernon Squires, who represents the North Shore on Pace’s board, said it is unlikely Pace will be able to expand service in Evanston. Pace might only adjust the schedules of Pace buses that are timed to meet CTA trains, he said.
“All the focus is on CTA’s financial woes, but Pace is in a tough position also,” Squires said. “We’re so severely constrained with our own finances that it’s tough for me to imagine how we can absorb CTA routes.”
Metra’s Union Pacific/North Line, which has three stops in Evanston, could absorb some riders from CTA if there are service cuts. Morning weekday inbound trains on the line have an average capacity ranging between 63 percent and 98 percent, said Metra spokesman Dan Schnolis.
Elonzo Hill, who represents suburban Cook County on Metra’s board, said it is too early to discuss adjusting commuter rail service in the face of proposed cuts.
“All of this is still in the hands of the CTA and the legislature,” Hill said.
Reach Greg Hafkin at [email protected].
