Robbing Peter to Pay Paul
Governor JB Pritzker smiles while speaking at the bill signing for the Chicago-area mass transit bailout law Tuesday. (Photo: Chicago Tribune)
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OPINION
Much of the criticism of the major Chicago area mass transit bail out bill singed into law by Governor JB Pritzker, especially the focus from Chicago media, has been centered around the disproportionate sales tax increase on suburban taxpayers and the toll road rate hike that literally nobody asked for (and does nothing for transit.)
And don’t get me wrong, those are huge problems. I’ll get to them.
What bothers me the most about the solution to bailing out Chicago area mass transit is how shameless Democrats are in swiping money from road money dedicated for downstate roads and bridges.
None of this is new, of course. Rep. Kam Buckner (D-Chicago), who helped write the bill, and I had a…spirited…discussion about this on the radio a couple of weeks ago and I continue to believe Democrats really just don’t care that they’re robbing downstate to bail out Chicago.
With a supermajority comes a serious lack of giving a f##k about the people south of I-80 who get the shiv.
If you don’t recall, one of the funding sources of the state’s road fund is a portion of the 6.25% sales tax on gasoline (in addition to the 47 cent per gallon motor fuel tax, yes, you get double taxed on gasoline.) 55% of the dollars go to downstate, 45% go to the northeastern corner of the state.
That’s being raided for mass transit. To the tune of about $860 million being diverted from roads and bridges to mass transit (85% of which will go to Chicago and suburban systems.)
Don’t believe me? Think I’m spouting “right wing talking points?” (As the Governor himself has accused me of doing in the past.)
They put the fund raid in their own fact sheet.
55% of that $860 million is supposed to go to downstate roads and bridges—about $470 million.
Democrats blatantly and shamelessly stole $470 million from the fund that repairs roads and bridges downstate and gives the money to the CTA.
Sounds about right.
And, remember, this bill is mostly about CTA. Metra, the commuter rail line, is in a significantly better fiscal position than CTA and its unreliable trains that generally smell like weed and urine.
The RTA sales tax will increase by a quarter point, to 1.25%, in the six county region comprising of Cook and the collar counties.
Just a reminder: the City of Chicago population is around 2.7 million. The rest of the suburbs is around 5.7 million. Who is bearing the brunt of that tax hike?
One would think users may have to pay for the system they’re using, right? Not so fast. They’ve frozen fares in the bill, which haven’t increased since before the pandemic.
Congratulations, downstate. Congratulations, suburbanites. You’re on the hook for the mismanagement of Chicago mass transit.
It’s like the worst version of a Robin Hood story ever.
