The City of Chicago's contribution to the CTA goes beyond $3 million
Myself and others have questioned why the City of Chicago funds the CTA with just $3 million in direct aid. So I put that question to CTA President Ron Huberman, and this was his reply:
"On the City contribution, a couple of points. First, we should address the misperception that CTA is a city entity only. Although the CTA is called the Chicago Transit Authority, the agency is a regional transit system that serves 40 suburbs, in addition to the city of Chicago. CTA provides 81 percent of the public transit trips in the six-county region either with direct service or connecting service to Metra and Pace. The CTA also provides nearly half of all trips that have a suburban component.
"The City of Chicago helps fund CTA operations and provides much needed funding for capital improvements. In fact, it is the only municipality that directly funds the CTA. In addition to an annual contribution of $3 million, the City of Chicago pays more than $20 million annually to fund the Chicago Police Department’s Public Transportation Section, which provides security for a large part of the CTA system.
"The CTA has also generous support from the City of Chicago in restoring its facilities. Since 1989, the City has invested about $850 million in CTA infrastructure projects, including building the Orange Line and renovating many stations in the Loop."
All well and good,but if the city kicked in a little more,then we might not have to put up with these annual doomsday scares.
Homeland security should also provide money for C.T.A.,so it would be capable of handling numerous different evacuation scenarios.
Posted by: James Reyes | August 14, 2007 at 07:45 AM
Kevin, isn't this pretty much the same as this?
http://ctachair.blogspot.com/2005/05/who-pays-what-for-transit.html
What I can't figure out is why suburban cook is still ok with this crazy situation with the collar counties ...
Posted by: Ike | August 14, 2007 at 09:09 AM
Worth pointing out that the Orange Line was primarily funded by Federal dollars, though the City took the lead on its construction and kicked in some matching funds and of course administration. The security costs are indeed useful, but I feel like more money spent for a greater security presence would go a long way towards dealing with the cleanliness issue, i.e. actually enforcing the no drink/food/litter policy like they do in Washington DC
Posted by: vivalfuego | August 14, 2007 at 09:13 AM
"All well and good,but if the city kicked in a little more..."
Talk about biting the hand that feeds. You can keep saying this until Chicago goes broke funding the entire RTA.
Perhaps Chicagoans should start looking to wealthy suburbs like Oak Park, Evanston, and Skokie that are served (quite a lot, actually) by the CTA and pay absolutely nothing for additional funds. I work up in Evanston -- which has its own express L line to downtown, for cryin' out loud -- and even on the ground I see as many CTA busses, if not more, than Pace. Maybe we're blaming the wrong municipalities for the lack of funding.
The truth is, the region benefits enormously from the CTA and would collapse without it. Unfortunately, the suburbs want to have their cake and eat it too. Typical.
Posted by: Brendan | August 14, 2007 at 09:17 AM
If we spend $20 million to fund the transit police, why do we need Securitas? How much is spent on them annually?
Posted by: E | August 14, 2007 at 11:12 AM
I agree with E. Kresi and Browne was trying to brainwash us for years that they cut all the fat out of the budget and threatened us with doomsday senarios every year. They said they outsourced security to save money.... but if the City is pumping in $20mil for security, what's Securitas doing? I'm glad Frank's gone and Ron's showing the public the truth behind the numbers but what's the deal with Browne. Last year she said we can't cut anymore and now she got slapped in the face with $20 million budget cut from Ron within his first month in office. Can anybody say incompetent? In her tenure at the RTA she hasn't helped get anymore state funding... when are we gonna push to get her out of here, too!!!!!
Posted by: cmama | August 14, 2007 at 01:25 PM
I hope that the people who claim the city should cough up more money to fund CTA realize that it's simply more of their tax dollars going to the CTA. The difference is whether the tax money is funded through the city (in this case) or through the RTA (traditional transit funding through sales taxes).
A better, more stable notion is to have a adequate and permanent funding stream for transit (a la SB572) than to rely on year-to-year funding support from the city. What would happen if the city had a down year financially? The CTA budget would be in a year to year state of instability uncertain of if or how much city funding would be available. I say keep Chicago's general revenue out of the CTA and let it be funded solely through an adequate RTA tax.
Posted by: Patrick | August 14, 2007 at 03:11 PM
Carol Browne, Ron Huberman, Frank Kruesi, and almost everyone else is in his or her seat due entirely to Mayor Daley. These are his loyalists.
When Browne said she couldn't cut anything else in 2007, it was Mayor Daley speaking. When Ron Huberman slashed the budget, it was also approved by Mayor Daley. It is no "slap in the face" to Ms. Browne when Mr. Huberman does something to the CTA that might discourage another board chairman. They are doing it together, in unity, in a coordinated manner, and any apparent irritation is for the cameras alone. You actually think they are all free agents? Of course you do, because that is what they want us to think. But naturally it would not be good for the mayor to have his people bickering in public. They know exactly what they are doing. This also explains why their numbers, and their spin on them, are identical, as you've observed.
As to a mere $3 million to operations, versus a bloated $20 million to police and security that has virtually no effect. I feel as though I'm in Wonderland, where everything is upside-down.
Posted by: Peter Zelchenko | January 16, 2008 at 05:01 PM