Pritzker Kills House Transit Bill Before It Gets Off the Ground
Governor JB Pritzker speaks at a farm in Christian County Wednesday. (Photo: Chicago Tribune)
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House Democrats dropped a 1,000-page transit bailout bill Tuesday night that raises $1.5 billion in taxes to fund the beleaguered mass transit agencies in the northeast corner of the state.
By Wednesday morning, it appeared Governor Pritzker had sent the package to it’s death.
“They sprung a whole bunch of things that have never been seen before,” Pritzker said at an unrelated news conference at a farm in Christian County. “There’s a whole lot of work the legislature still needs to do. When you come up with a new (tax) idea it’s gotta be run through the Department of Revenue to figure out how you might go about collecting the tax or what it would actually yield. There’s got to be a lot of discussion between the House and the Senate in order to come up with the final bill because it isn’t going to look like what the House has put forward.”
While the package advanced through a House committee Wednesday, it’s fate is still uncertain, as we’re told Governor Pritzker, House Speaker Chris Welch, and Senate President Don Harmon spoke about the transit issue “some” late Wednesday night.
Some House Democrats voiced frustration with Pritzker’s dismissal of the plan without offering his own ideas.
“We’ve got to pass something. And we cannot get stuck at no. We’ve got to find ways to get to yes,” said Rep. Kam Buckner (D-Chicago), one of the House Democrat transit negotiators. “We’ve got a job to do here. We’re going to do it, but we are, once again, open to any suggestions to make this bill better.”
“All of these ideas should not have been a surprise to them,” Rep. Eva-Dina Delgado (D-Chicago), another one of the House Democrat transit negotiators said.
Pritzker has often spoken about opposing “broad based” tax increases, but has yet to lay out, at least publicly, what he wants in a transit bill.
We’re told talks are ongoing to try to get a bill done Thursday on the final day of the fall veto session, but many transit reform supporters believe the issue is likely to be punted to 2026.
“This was a pretty epic crash and burn in less than 12 hours,” one lobbyist said on the condition of anonymity Wednesday. “I don’t know how there’s any trust to fix this by [Thursday].”
