Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Chicago Mayor Says Think Different

The Mayor of Chicago has challenged the State to be "creative" when it comes to solving the public transit funding problem. Fresh from raising property taxes in Chicago, the Mayor also criticized the Governor for his opposition to increasing sales taxes in the six-county Regional Transportation Authority region So, let's get modestly creative and suggest that the following provisions be included in the final transit bill:

1. Indexed Fare Increases. Index fares to some reasonable measure such as the Consumer Price Index, perhaps capping increases at 4% annually to avoid sudden spikes. This provision will address the concerns of certain parties that a fare increase be part of a funding solution and allow the service boards--Chicago Transit Authority, Metra, Pace--to avoid the counter-productive cycles of putting off fare increases too long and then raising them too sharply. Indexing public transit fares provides a nice precedent for using a similar index to periodically increase the state gas tax to help protect its yield in real dollars.

2. Direct State Role In RTA . Take a board member from each of the three RTA subregions--City of Chicago, suburban Cook County and the collar counties--and make them gubernatorial appointments subject to Senate approval. Make the RTA Chairman a gubernatorial appointment. This State role is commensurate to the State's financial contribution to the public transit system in northeastern Illinois and the important role of that system in the State's transportation system.

3. Hold RTA Accountable. Currently, the RTA can reject service board budgets that do not meet the statutory requirements. The service board then suffers a financial penalty, namely, loss of their share of Public Transportation Fund monies from the State. The RTA, however, suffers no financial penalty if it is derlict in its duties by, for example, allowing service levels to grow faster than revenues over an extended period (as the Auditor General found) or approving unbalanced budgets with plug numbers for hoped-for contributions from the State to cover major deficits (as the RTA did in FY 2007). Some portion of the RTA's funding for its own administration should be subject to being withdrawn if the RTA fails to perform. This provision would apply only if the RTA remained as just a financial oversight agency. (See #5 below.)

4. Tie Transit To Land Use. Explicitly tie transit investments to land use. Write in the RTA Act a requirement that the RTA prioritize transit investment and service to regions and communities that support transit oriented development. (This is not necessarily a gimme for Chicago. Its embrace of big box retailing and minimum parking space requirements for new residential construction, for example, might put it below some suburban communities that are trying to build TOD developments around Metra stations.)

5. Restructure The RTA And The Service Boards. Combine CTA bus operations and Pace mainline bus operations into one operating unit. Pace's paratransit, vanpool and demand response service becomes another unit. CTA rail and Metra become their own units. These become purely operating units tucked into the RTA. This means that the separate boards of directors of the service boards would be abolished. Rather, the RTA and its board would have ultimate operating responsibility for public transit in the region.

Find a funding source, pass these provisions and be done with it. There certainly are more creative ideas--e.g., emergency oversight agency; combining RTA, IDOT District 1 and the Tollway; and heavy investment in alternative automobile technology (e.g., plug in hybrids)--but these provisions with the exception of #5 could be tucked into SB 572 or its successor pretty easily.

23 comments:

Jennifer said...

"This is not necessarily a gimme for Chicago. Its embrace of big box retailing and minimum parking space requirements for new residential construction, for example, might put it below some suburban communities that are trying to build TOD developments around Metra stations."

I'm assuming this would vary from neighborhood to neighborhood, though? I'd hate to see the whole city penalized because parts of it are starting to look like Gurnee. Or were you thinking that this could be a deterrent to further suburbanizing of the urban environment? Hmm, in that case I rather like the idea...

Anonymous said...

5. Restructure The RTA And The Service Boards. Combine......

The RTA was to be unique in that it was charged with representing the public interest(s). If you combine into one operating entity then you now have one service board, which will then have one agenda which will then self-perpetuate...so who looks out for the public interest? That's what you have now any way by political default, because the RTA prefers to be the "Regional Transit Association". Imagine if your project/construction management consultant was also your general contractor...wow, you'd really be screwed. Daley's got it made.

Anonymous said...

11:08, while the RTA may be charged with representing the public interest, it hasn't fulfilled that role, and conceives its mission as asking for more funding, and if it gets it, implementing an unfocused "Moving Beyond Congestion" wish list.

Moderator provides good goals, but with playmanship such as Madigan saying he will adjourn the special session as soon as it is called, we can't expect any of it.

The Pace Northwest strike called today shows what the future more likely will be. Also, I suggest that you read the law governing this: The Illinois Public Labor Relations Act, especially sections 17 and 18. A strike by transit workers is not illegal, although calling one without giving 5 days notice is.

Anonymous said...

9:08:00 AM :

You didn't understand 11:08:00 PM because you paraphrased the 1st paragraph.

BTW-- it hasn't fulfilled that role because Daley won't let it.

Anonymous said...

Moderator:

A consolidated Bus Division would dwarf your 2 proposed Rail divisions in ridership, mobility delivery and revenues.

How would that work (organically) given the amateur/professional/wonk/politician's fixation on rail? Not well and not for long.

You see, bus benefits primarily the region's mobility needs whereas rail is principally a development/money making tool for land interests and their political front-men. They have you doing too. Are you a pseudo River City developer?

Anonymous said...

6:28, I don't think I did, but if your point is that the RTA was supposed to be the watchdog, but isn't, there isn't much disagreement.

You could have an independent Transit Auditor General (perhaps appointed by the Governor, with confirmation by the legislature) assure accountability for money. However, the lack of oversight by the RTA over the service boards indicates that the current structure should not be retained. Instead of having 44 directors (my count, adding up the RTA, CTA, Metra, and Pace boards, and assuming SB572 were enacted, although my count may be off a few), pulling down $15,000 or $25,000 a year each, for doing virtually nothing (i.e. the RTA Board hasn't mandated compliance with accounting standards, and the CTA Board can't even execute its statutory duty to appoint an Executive Director with transit experience), only furthers patronage bloat with no great benefit. One board of about 11 members could handle all of it.

One may note that this is close to the structure of the NY MTA. It has 17 directors, who are responsible for bus, rail, subway, and bridges, and an Inspector General. We are getting far less out of our 40 some directors, and 4 executive directors and their staffs.

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