Elated Chicago Transit Authority officials moved Thursday to cancel fare increases and service cuts slated for next month after a regional transportation board voted unanimously to pass along $54.3 million to the agency.
The Regional Transportation Authority’s vote gives CTA riders at least a six-month reprieve from the CTA’s doomsday scenario. It also pleased Pace suburban bus agency officials, who will receive a separate $7.8 million in RTA funds to help cover the costs of providing rides to the disabled, or paratransit. That money will come from higher-than-expected sales tax revenues and a larger-than-projected 2004 budget surplus.
The RTA plan approved Thursday was a compromise deal that culminated weeks of negotiations and settled a dispute that had erupted after state lawmakers agreed in May to set aside $54.3 million for the region’s paratransit services.
Pace had wanted 20 percent, or $10.8 million, of the state funds, but agency officials were pleased with the agreement.
“We are very happy,” said Rocky Donahue, Pace’s director of government affairs. “This will allow us to purchase paratransit vehicles we had to put on hold.”
CTA President Frank Kruesi said he and Chairwoman Carole Brown, an RTA board member who was out of town, would recommend the CTA board rescind scheduled fare hikes, bus and rail service cuts and layoffs of about 2,000 employees. He is confident the board will agree.
“We are delighted that we are through 2005 without fare increases or service cuts,” Kruesi said at a news conference at the Green Line’s Clinton Station. “It’s great the CTA ended up where we needed to be in order to avoid service cuts, layoffs and fare increases.”
But RTA board members warned that the vote was only a temporary fix, especially because CTA is forecasting a budget deficit of up to $100 million next year. Transit officials said the only way to permanently fix the problem is to address the region’s public transportation funding formula, which the House Mass Transit Committee is examining. That study is expected to take about 18 months.
In the meantime, several RTA members voiced support for the CTA to raise its base fare to $2 from $1.75. Donald Totten, a RTA board member from suburban Cook County, noted motorists are paying higher gas prices to drive their automobiles.
“Why can’t people in the city of Chicago pay 25 cents more to ride the transit system?” he asked.
Kruesi, who will present his 2006 budget in October, would not say how he will handle next year’s budget deficit. But he said it’s not definite that CTA riders will be faced with another doomsday scenario.
“I don’t believe there is anything inevitable about service cuts or fare increases, and it seems to me the reverse is the case,” he said. “This year we are seeing a huge surge in ridership, and I think that’s reflective of the fact that people are rediscovering transit.”
Also, the CTA will only have to cover its paratransit costs–budgeted at $52.5 million this year–for the first six months of 2006. Afterward, Pace will be responsible for delivering all paratransit rides in the region.
