SPRINGFIELD — Illinois lawmakers ended their spring session early Sunday without passing legislation to reform mass transit governance in the Chicago area or direct upwards of $1 billion in new funding to the CTA, Metra and Pace to fend off a $770 million fiscal cliff that looms next year.
A bill championed by state Sen. Ram Villivalam, D-Chicago, passed the Senate by 32-22 vote shortly before midnight, but the measure — and its proposed $1.50 tax on food and package deliveries — never got out of the station to the House floor.
Had it been put up to a vote before the clock struck 12, it would’ve only required a simple majority, but the state constitution requires a three-fifths approval for bills passed June 1 or later.
And on a night when Democrats had to race the clock to pass a state budget, several House members told the Sun-Times the votes probably wouldn’t have been there either way.
“We’ve got to go back to the drawing board to figure out what our strategy is,” said state Rep. Kam Buckner, D-Chicago.
Villivalam, the Senate Transportation Committee chairman who has led an overhaul discussion that has spanned three years, stood by the “critical relief” afforded by his transit funding package but acknowledged its future was murky.
Federal COVID-19 relief dollars dry up next year, posing the fiscal doomsday scenario long painted by transit advocates of 40% system-wide service cuts and some 3,000 layoffs of transportation workers.
Lawmakers could return to Springfield for a special session this summer to either take up Villivalam’s bill or hash out a new one. Legislative leaders have already advised members to be ready to come back in the event of broader federal funding cuts under President Donald Trump’s administration.
“We’ve got to continue conversations. We’ve always worked together with the House on the concept of no funding without reform and making sure that we do fund a system that is able to be safe, reliable, accessible and integrated,” Villivalam said.
The $1.50-per delivery tax was billed by supporters as an “environmental impact fee” but slammed by opponents in the business community as a regressive “pizza tax.”
It ended up being just as bitter a pill for legislators in the Democratic supermajority to swallow as revenue proposals floated earlier in the waning days of the spring legislative session. A previous draft included a toll hike and a diversion of some suburban sales taxes that prompted a bipartisan outcry from organized labor and collar county leaders.
The package delivery tax — which wouldn’t apply to standalone grocery or medication shipments — is estimated to inject more than $1 billion to stave off the fiscal crisis for transit, along with a real estate transfer tax. That was intended to roughly double what agencies say they need to avoid disaster, improve reliability and bolster security on a system long beset by customer dissatisfaction.
Funding questions aside, legislators seemed mostly on board with a reformed governance structure empowering a new Northern Illinois Transit Authority to set unified fares, allow for easier transfers and assume capital planning responsibilities.
The governor, Chicago mayor and Cook County board president would each appoint five members of the 20-person board, with one each named by the board chairs of DuPage, Kane, Lake, McHenry and Will counties.
A separate bill introduced by state Rep. Eva-Dina Delgado, D-Chicago, mirrors Villivalam’s measure in terms of establishing a unified body but didn’t address funding.
Without state dollars locked in, labor leaders and agency heads have warned pink slips could go out later this year.
“The trains won’t stop rolling today, but the urgency for resolving the funding gap has increased,” said state Rep. Marcus Evans, D-Chicago.
A spokesperson for the Regional Transit Authority said the agency is grateful for the General Assembly’s work, but that it can only put forward a budget with the funding it’s confident it will receive in 2026.
“It’s clear that many in both the House and Senate support transit, and our intention is to build on that shared support to identify the funding needed to avoid devastating cuts and disruption for everyone in Northeast Illinois,” spokesperson Tina Fassett Smith said in a statement. “Balancing regional interests is challenging, but we are ready to continue our work to achieve consensus and deliver a solution.”