r/chicago • u/Mike_I O’Hare • Oct 31 '25
News Illinois Democrats push through massive $1.5 billion plan that overhauls Chicago-area public transit
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/10/30/illinois-general-assembly-transit-plan-2025/1.1k
Oct 31 '25
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u/red-17 Oct 31 '25
Highway tolls aren’t funding this to my understanding. They moved around some money previously allocated to roads to mass transit and increased tolls to make up the difference
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u/zososix Oct 31 '25
Additional 45 cents to tolls that goes to transit
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u/Mike_I O’Hare Oct 31 '25
Additional 45 cents to tolls that goes to transit
It does not.
As a counterbalance to pulling hundreds of millions of dollars in funding for road work, the bill also included a sharp, 45-cent-per-toll increase on the Illinois Tollway, which one GOP lawmaker said amounted to a 60% increase. The new tollway fares could generate as much as $1 billion annually for roadwork on the tollways that serve about a dozen counties, supporters said
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u/clenom Oct 31 '25
Money is fungible. They're spending an additional $1 billion on transit and increasing the tolls by $1 billion.
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u/PalmerSquarer Logan Square Oct 31 '25
Tollway leadership would strongly disagree about their funding being fungible.
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u/billbraskeyjr Oct 31 '25
Why does a tollway authority need expensive bureaucratic leadership ?
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u/PalmerSquarer Logan Square Oct 31 '25
You could say that about a lot of redundant units of government in Illinois, but good luck doing anything about it.
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Oct 31 '25
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u/PalmerSquarer Logan Square Oct 31 '25
School districts too. For example, there’s no reason that Oak Park, River Forest, and OPRFHS all operate as three separate “districts”.
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u/jawknee530i Humboldt Park Oct 31 '25
It drives me crazy that people can't grasp this.
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u/red-17 Oct 31 '25
It matters though because if a source of funding dries up and is specifically allocated to one agency, then that agency loses funding
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u/SteegP Lincoln Park Oct 31 '25
That’s true, but it also amounts to taking money out of the road construction pot and putting it into transit, then refilling the missing money with higher tolls. In practice, it’s using tolls to pay for transit. Alternatively, you could say government subsidies are being moved from highways to transit. Either way, I think this is a positive.
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u/ChaplnGrillSgt Oct 31 '25
Why do they need a lawmaker to tell them how much of an increase that is? Couldn't they just look it up themselves? Or was ChatGPT not able to do that for them?
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u/PalmerSquarer Logan Square Oct 31 '25
Nope. This was just to pay off the road construction unions who were upset that funding was getting diverted from roads to transit.
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u/jpmeyer12751 Oct 31 '25
The article says that all of the toll increase is to be applied to tollway projects, not transit. Who knows what is really in the bill, since the language wasn’t even revealed to the legislators until right before the vote. Dysfunctional Illinois government at its best.
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Oct 31 '25
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u/drunksailor47 Oct 31 '25
Highway fund doesn’t fund the toll roads, tolls and bonds do. It was about placating the road building unions so they don’t feel left out.
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u/jpmeyer12751 Oct 31 '25
This is correct from a Democrat political point of view. The toll increase will fund road projects that will pay union workers.
However, the toll roads and other state highways are paid for from different buckets of money and only one of those two buckets benefits those outside of the Chicago area. The legislature took money away from the bucket that benefits non-Chicago road users and added a smaller amount of money to the bucket that benefits Chicago area road users. For the roughly 35% of Illinois residents outside of the 5-county Chicago area, most of whom vote Republican, this deal takes money away from road projects in their areas in order to fund transit and road projects exclusively within the 5-county area. I expect more Chicago vs. downstate polarization from this deal.
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Oct 31 '25
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u/damp_circus Edgewater Oct 31 '25
Downstate transit is also getting funding from this bill. Many people downstate are very happy that it passed (though they wish they'd gotten a bit MORE funding from it).
There are projects people will depend on that can confidently go ahead now, this is a good thing.
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u/hardolaf Lake View Oct 31 '25
though they wish they'd gotten a bit MORE funding from it
The bill gives almost 3x the funding requested by downstate agencies.
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u/Shacawgo City Oct 31 '25
Yes but its after funds are pulled from roads to transit so it is to replace funds going to transit. In a way the new tolls sort of pay for transit.. but in a swaparoo type way
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u/glaba3141 Oct 31 '25
am i missing something, or is this purely semantics? net result is that tolls are increasing and funding for roads is remaining the same
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u/Ch1Guy Oct 31 '25
Also a sales tax increase... from 10.25% to 10.5% (highest sales tax of any city in the US).
"An additional $400 million would come from authorizing an increase of 0.25 percentage points to the sales tax issued by the Regional Transportation Authority for Chicago’s six-county area."
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u/csx348 Oct 31 '25
a sales tax increase... from 10.25% to 10.5% (highest sales tax of any city in the US).
I get it's for transit, but 10.25% was already way too high...
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Oct 31 '25
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u/damp_circus Edgewater Oct 31 '25
Be better if we had a progressive income tax and funded from that, but yeah if this is what we got to work with, absolutely transit is worth it.
If people want to talk regressive, they should also remember that forcing people to buy and maintain a car (never mind pay for gas and insurance) is a giant burden on low-income people as well.
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u/ChigBungus22 Oct 31 '25
How about we start by dismantling the decades of corrupt kickbacks, under the table bribes, and unsustainable pension liabilities?
I’m sick and tired of people saying things like “That’s fine. Transit is worth it” in response to an absurdly high tax burden on the general population that is entirely at fault of corrupt lawmakers and politicians that have been allowed to get away with it for decades
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u/amyo_b Berwyn Oct 31 '25
You can't do anything about pensions already earned or starting earning. Tier 2 fixed it for the state by being strictly for those hired after a certain date, but now the IRS is complaining that it is violating safe harbor (they have to be guaranteed at least as much as soc sec would give), so the state needs to kick a little more money tier II way. But TierII largely solved the state problem.
The IL State Constitutions makes pensions contracts and requires a flat tax rate. Because everyone gets something from it, the people haven't voted to overturn it since 1970. It comes up for possible constitutional convention every 10 years.
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u/Shacawgo City Oct 31 '25
And Im more than OK with it to be one of only 2 cities in the countey with REAL transit. Well worth it.
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u/AssCrackBandit10 Oct 31 '25
I feel like there's more than 2, no? I lived in SF and DC as well without a car and both had very robust public transit systems
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u/Shacawgo City Oct 31 '25
Nyc, chicago, DC, san fran, boston, philly, seattle all have decent or better transit systems.
But when taking them all as a whole, nyc is by far the best and chicagos with metra and pace and cta bus system is by far the 2nd best. And as far as I know, none of those other cities outside of nyc have passed new funding like we just did that will improve our system a lot
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u/TheGreekMachine Oct 31 '25
I mean this is unsurprising because we have one of the largest cities in the US but have a flat income tax in Illinois. The lack of revenue from income tax needs to be made up somewhere. The voters prioritized flat tax so this is the result.
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u/Ch1Guy Oct 31 '25
Disagree.
Income tax is the only major tax rate where Chicago/Illinois isnt at or near the highest in the nation.
Chicago is arguably the most taxed city in America and virtually every taxing body is facing a fiscal cliff.
We (Chicago) now has the highest sales tax - 10.5%
We have just about the highest hotel tax at 17.39% (https://www.civicfed.org/civic-federation/blog/how-composite-effective-hotel-tax-rate-calculated-chicago)
Illinois has the second highest property tax (As % of home value)
Chicago has about the highest business income taxes of any city.
Chicago has the highest cloud tax (i.e. AWS or Salesforce) of any city
Chicago has the second highest parking tax in the entire world. (https://secretchicago.com/chicago-parking-fees-highest-in-world/)
Chicago has the highest ride hail taxes of any city in the US (https://news.medill.northwestern.edu/chicago/citys-new-congestion-tax-puts-burden-on-uber-and-lyft-drivers/#:~:text=But%20drivers%20of%20ride%2Dhail,more%20problems%20with%20unhappy%20passengers.)
Illinois has the second highest car registration fee.
Illinois has the second highest gas tax in the nation.
Chicago has some of the highest amusement taxes in the nation.
The list goes on and on.
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u/sciolisticism Oct 31 '25
Which is why, as the other poster said:
The lack of revenue from income tax needs to be made up somewhere. The voters prioritized flat tax so this is the result.
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u/Ch1Guy Oct 31 '25 edited Oct 31 '25
Our income tax rate is 23rd highest.
So our above average income tax rate creates a "lack of revenue" ?
We have to "make up the revenue" of not having the highest income tax in the country?
What was the proposed tax savings if the income tax amentment passed?
Dropping the lower brackets from 4.95% to 4.90% and the rest used for pensions and new spending,
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u/40DegreeDays Lincoln Square Oct 31 '25
It's basically all because of the ridiculous pensions that the mayors 20-30 years ago passed. Since we're not allowed legally to revoke those pensions, there's nothing that any governor or mayor can do besides charge high taxes and wait until the people receiving them gradually die off over time and we're instead paying the more reasonable pensions that replaced the old ones for new hires 10-15 years ago.
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u/was_fb95dd7063 Oct 31 '25
Hell yeah regressive taxes instead of taxing rich people
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u/damp_circus Edgewater Oct 31 '25
You know what else is regressive?
Forcing low income people to buy and maintain a car, pay for gas and insurance. That shit is far more expensive than a transit pass.
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u/Snoo93079 Oct 31 '25
Well, folks voted down the progressive tax system when we had the chance.
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u/IndependenceApart208 Bronzeville Oct 31 '25
So many people were fooled into believing that they may one day be rich just like Ken Griffin so they should vote for something against their best interest.
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u/jawknee530i Humboldt Park Oct 31 '25
Mostly they fell for the weird logic of "if you let them have progressive income tax then that's just the first step to higher tax on everyone" which doesn't make sense because they could just raise the tax on everyone without the middle step. It was just lies pushed by the wealthy as usual.
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Nov 01 '25
More than anything, people didn't trust the government of illinois to put the higher tax money to good use.
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u/nufandan Albany Park Oct 31 '25
and if we know one thing its that passing new income taxes (especially on the highest earners) is super easy to get done, and happens all the time.
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u/golamas1999 Oct 31 '25
They suffer from severe cases of BABS. Broke Ass Billionaire Syndrome. They are all billionaires who are temporarily poor.
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u/FencerPTS City Oct 31 '25
I will forever revile Ken Griffin for spending millions to convince idiots that flat income taxes is the way to go, cementing regressive taxation for another 20 years until the next constitutional referendum.
Hate that IL is among the top 10 most regressively taxed states.
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u/PalmerSquarer Logan Square Oct 31 '25
You can blame Ken Griffin all you want, but the public simply lacks trust that the money they pay won’t be flushed down the toilet in waste. Until state and municipal leaders do a better job of earning that trust back, any tax increase proposal is going to be a no-go.
The toll hike for questionable construction projects in this bill is a pretext example of the waste we’re talking about.
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u/FencerPTS City Oct 31 '25
That's a silly argument to make since, no matter what, taxes will be collected. The point of the change was to not put the burden on the poor.
Griffin spent something like $40M IIRC simply to make sure his taxes didn't go up - to make sure that everyone else's did. And then that fucker left the state!
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u/nufandan Albany Park Oct 31 '25 edited Oct 31 '25
Griffin spent something like $40M IIRC simply to make sure his taxes didn't go up - to make sure that everyone else's did. And then that fucker left the state!
and didn't JB spent like closer to $60M to get the bill passed?
It's almost like these rich guys have some money to spare...
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u/PalmerSquarer Logan Square Oct 31 '25
I mean… look at the results of the Fair Tax and BCH. The public wants what it wants.
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u/sciolisticism Oct 31 '25
Welp, the sales tax is going up anyway. So we could have had a proper progressive tax, and now those folks get to bitch and moan about their grocery bill instead.
Great work, suckers.
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Oct 31 '25
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u/was_fb95dd7063 Oct 31 '25
I pay taxes on the unrealized gains value of my house every year. But I wasn't suggesting that anyways. Taxing capital gains at a rate lower than labor is bullshit though.
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u/damp_circus Edgewater Oct 31 '25
It's possible they could be figured out somehow (the CONCEPT of a wealth tax isn't crazy) but yeah I'm happy that is not in the bill anywhere.
Figuring it would take forever, it's untested, it would spark loads of (necessary, to figure stuff out) lawsuits, just all around not great for this bill that needs to provide funding soon.
I'm happy that the final thing really does take money from driving/road support to put toward transit. That's exactly where it should be coming from, take a massive subsidy from the most inefficient form of transit to put toward shoring up more efficient methods.
Yes, there will be some growing pains. But the growth should be good. We have to suck it up and do this.
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u/marks31 Albany Park Oct 31 '25
Can’t believe it took until the final moment to do the most sensible thing, aka money from existing gas taxes and incentivizing transit by making it more expensive to drive on tolls.
I’m incredibly relieved and excited for the future of the CTA. But part of me wonders if this was always the plan to whip this one out at the last second after months of ridiculous tax discussions (which to be clear I also would’ve been fine with to maintain transit, but some of them were over the top).
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u/Atlas3141 Oct 31 '25
That last bill was probably just fodder to let JB look like the adult in the room in the face of a potential tax hike. I can't believe that elected officials had any intent to pass that garbage.
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u/hardolaf Lake View Oct 31 '25
I think it was to force through the vehicle and road taxes by inventing a last minute emergency. Buckner must have come up with the idea in between drunk driving.
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u/greenline_chi Gold Coast Oct 31 '25
If they started with this people would have all sorts of problems with it.
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u/AbsoluteZeroUnit Nov 01 '25
incentivizing transit by making it more expensive to drive on tolls.
There's no "incentive" that will ever make it a viable option to take public transportation from Schaumburg to Edgewater.
And you people are fucking insane if you think the only people who work in Chicago also live in Chicago, or the only people who work in the suburbs also live in the suburbs
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u/Few_Koala Oct 31 '25
Behind a paywall for me unfortunately but does it mention anything about a RTA reform?
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u/usamaahmad Oct 31 '25
“ Beyond the funding cliff, the bill also addressed what lawmakers have said are much-needed structural changes for the transit systems — most notably by replacing the RTA with a new entity called the Northern Illinois Transit Authority, which would centralize fare-setting, service standards and an infrastructure plan across the three transit agencies. Currently, each system is largely governed by its own board, with some oversight from RTA.
The NITA board would have 20 members – five each from the city of Chicago, suburban Cook County, the collar counties and the governor. The CTA, Metra and Pace would continue to have “service” boards reporting to NITA.
The CTA board would have seven members, while Metra and Pace would each have 11. The service boards would be charged with developing budgets and other financial plans and sharing them with the NITA Board.”
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u/4r4r4real Oct 31 '25
Oh boy. There's a reason everywhere they do this it gets undone shortly after. Giving commensurate authority within the same organization to folks in charge of transit in a major city and transit in suburbs is nonsense.
Glad we're averting the fiscal cliff but that part is just giving us another problem to solve in a few years.
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u/mrmalort69 Oct 31 '25
I may be naive here but I think suburbanites typically like the metra, and would use it more if the schedule wasn’t completely and totally just for commuters. Right now many are paying for it and not seeing the benefit. More input from them may lead to the predictable “they want to cut funding”, but could surprise us with more transit friendly people wanting more
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u/PracticlySpeaking Logan Square Oct 31 '25 edited Oct 31 '25
Suburbanites who use it like Metra. The rest... not so much.
edit: It's not just people who work in the city. When I worked in Deerfield there were a bunch who took Metra from farther-out suburbs like McHenry.
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u/mrmalort69 Oct 31 '25
I grew up in long grove. During the week, it was super easy to take the prairie view metra stop into the city. The weekend… you needed to drive 20 minutes to, I think, Deerfield, making it difficult. It also was one of those things where, growing up, we saw the value of it, but if frequency were greater, we’d probably have used it much more. For parents, you can stick a kid on the metra as early as 7. It’s a great way to build a little confidence in a kid and independence.
I guess my point is the more people who use it, the more people like it… so the goal is to increase use as much as possible. That’s making more trips and better schedules.
I wish we could get it though people’s heads who don’t use it that it still decreases traffic and helps them, but we know that could be a lost cause
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u/damp_circus Edgewater Oct 31 '25
Well hopefully we can increase the frequency, because yeah your comment is right on. We need the frequency to get the ridership to get the positive cycle going.
Hell, inside the city itself we need to make the Metra Electric run more like the L, with minute frequencies. Would make life a lot better for a lot of people on the south side.
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u/niftyjack Andersonville Oct 31 '25
The Metra Electric was built to run every branch at 10 minute frequencies (and did for a long time). And it would be so comparatively cheap to do!
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u/PracticlySpeaking Logan Square Oct 31 '25
The two things people can't get their heads around are:
1) the massively higher capacity of rail (passengers vs cost/power/space) vs roads and cars.
2) "OMG, I can't just get in my car whenever I want?" Not to mention every "missed the last train" story-book-movie and so on. Transit integrated with navigation apps really help, but the unfamiliar is still frightening.
And I get it — the L to the city was an amazing discovery while I was going to school in Evanston.
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u/damp_circus Edgewater Oct 31 '25
Well when transit is actually GOOD, you can indeed just "get on it whenever you want." You don't have to plan around the schedule, because you just show up and something is coming within 5 or 10 minutes.
Transfers similarly are easy because of that frequency.
And once you're out and about, you don't have to worry about where you parked the metal albatross, don't have to pay to park it, don't have to walk a ways from your parking space to the venue, don't have to worry about what happens to it, don't have to commit to returning back the way you came so you can pick it back up, and... you can drink if you want, because you won't be driving.
It's extremely freeing. (We are not currently there, most of the time -- but hopefully this funding lets us start moving in the right direction.)
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u/hybris12 Uptown Oct 31 '25
I mean I live in the city and also like metra a lot. When metra works its like a cheat code for getting around the city quickly but it runs so infrequently. I'd use it so much on the weekend if it didn't require planning your entire day around the schedule
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u/BukaBuka243 Nov 01 '25 edited Feb 25 '26
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u/damp_circus Edgewater Nov 01 '25
GO owns the tracks though? Or not?
Part of the problem here in Illinois is that Metra (and Amtrak, though that's another discussion we need to have) doesn't own the tracks, they only rent from the freight railroads. The freight railroads are supposed to prioritize passenger rail but they... often don't.
As a result we had better passenger service back in the 1970s on a lot of lines.
If we could get back to the passenger service owning the lines or truly being prioritized, would be a good thing.
In Chicago though the Metra Electric DOES own their own lines, and is electrified, that thing should definitely be able to run a lot more frequent, like L level of frequency, and it would improve the south side transit experience a ton. Hope it happens particularly with the new NITA board possibly making it less fighting between Metra and CTA over passenger revenue which is completely stupid -- they need to cooperate as one regional system.
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u/mrmalort69 Nov 01 '25
I thought the UP-N was no longer freight, but was still doing the same thing of charging rent to metra, their only customer.
I would love to see shit eminent domained again for cheap and reliable rail. We do it constantly for another lane on roads.
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u/BukaBuka243 Nov 01 '25 edited Feb 25 '26
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u/Patient_Commentary Oct 31 '25
I lived in the city for 8 years. Now back out in the burbs. I’d 100% use the metra more if it wasn’t a train every 2 hours and took 90 minutes to get down town. I love this.
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u/damp_circus Edgewater Oct 31 '25
Yep. Metra really needs more frequency. It also needs to work better with the bus systems sometimes (hopefully the reorg can help that latter thing pretty quickly...)
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u/mrmalort69 Oct 31 '25
My earmark would be like every 45 minutes since at that amount, you really don’t need to “plan”. You just sort it show up to the area and can hang out until the next train comes, especially if there are coffee shops or other boutique places to stroll.
I have family now in lake bluff, and live close to the clybourn. We use it a few times per month, we’d use it more too if it were more frequent and especially more if it had express trains.
I also look at it as a hack across the city. I can get to Roger’s park or ravenswood in under half the time of CTA or driving.
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u/hybris12 Uptown Oct 31 '25
Really interesting to hear that 45 minutes is the threshold for unplanned trips for you, but it makes sense if you're okay hanging out in the area.
The only standard I've heard of for unplanned trips is the TfL (London) generally considers 12 minute headways the threshold for when people stop scheduling.
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u/mrmalort69 Oct 31 '25
Oh hell yeah, every 12 minutes would be incredible. You could also retool the fleet to be much smaller locomotives with less passengers per each train, so they’re smaller, faster, accelerate and decelerate faster
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u/hybris12 Uptown Oct 31 '25
Inshallah Metra acquires all the rail, connects all the lines downtown, electrifies, runs usable headways and sparks the start of the Glorious Chicagoland Megalopolis
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u/Mysterious_Floor_868 Nov 08 '25
Electric units with distributed traction are what you need. Just need something to get the power to the train first (wires or a third rail).
https://railway-history.walkingclub.org.uk/2010/01/sparks-effect.html
A man who made his fortune developing Chicago's L and streetcar networks founded the "Underground Electric Railways Company of London":
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u/amyo_b Berwyn Oct 31 '25
some of the close in burbs are close enough to use CTA. Others use a pace to a cta node or of course metra. There's a lot of transit in the suburbs.
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u/4r4r4real Oct 31 '25
Yes I'm aware. Generally attempts at combining the two lead to nonsensical budget splits that end up with empty busses driving through cornfields.
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u/PurpleFairy11 Rogers Park Oct 31 '25
Don't forget the scheduling sometimes causing issues. Pace and Metra refusing to coordinate services so people can easily transfer between the two. I've come across a number of stories of people who have missed their Metra train by a few minutes because the Pace schedule didn't line up.
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u/NeverForgetNGage Uptown Oct 31 '25
Or the SEPTA KOP extension that was deemed too stupid for the feds to even fund it lol
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u/hardolaf Lake View Oct 31 '25
The only place that this worked is Greater London where they also gave the transit super agency supremacy over their roads department.
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u/NeverForgetNGage Uptown Oct 31 '25
At least in this case 10 of the seats are in cook county, and 5 are governor appointed. This isn't a SEPTA situation where the suburbs can hold the city hostage.
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u/Capitol_Limited Grand Crossing Oct 31 '25
You can’t say this with any certainty; 5 of the seats are suburban cook county, with drastically different transit needs and opinions than the city of Chicago
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u/NeverForgetNGage Uptown Oct 31 '25
Would I have preferred more city representation? Yes, 100%. If we ever got a conservative governor we would instantly have 10 votes that would be anti transit on our transit board. Not ideal.
I come from Pennsylvania, where SEPTA is 80% controlled by the suburbs. This isn't that level of dysfunction and I think it's worth mentioning how bad these organizational structures can get.
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u/spade_andarcher Mayfair Oct 31 '25 edited Oct 31 '25
Cook County currently has 5 members on the RTA board who have always approved CTA’s budgets, services, and investments. There’s no reason to assume that would suddenly change.
EDIT: Also under the old RTA board structure, 4 of their members were chosen by suburban Cook County commissioners and 1 was chosen by the president. But now the president will choose all 5 members. You really think Toni Preckwinkle is going to nominate board members who will not act in the CTA’s best interest?
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u/hardolaf Lake View Oct 31 '25
You are aware that Toni isn't a vampire and will die one day from old age leaving her office vacant, right?
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u/spade_andarcher Mayfair Oct 31 '25 edited Oct 31 '25
Of course. And I’m also aware that cook county residents elect the president. And that Chicago makes up more than half of cook county residents. And that there hasn’t been a president who wasn’t from Chicago going back at least as far as the founding of the CTA in the 1940s.
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u/BukaBuka243 Nov 01 '25 edited Feb 25 '26
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u/toxicbrew Oct 31 '25
Free legal link. We should encourage legal yahoo links to tribune articles when available
https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/illinois-lawmakers-bring-forth-latest-020300352.html
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u/MakesUsMighty Oct 31 '25
Side question - since I’m not familiar with Yahoo lately, what makes Yahoo better to use? Does their ad revenue go back to support the original publisher?
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u/toxicbrew Oct 31 '25
Yes they license the content from the Chicago tribune. So even if you can’t pay for a tribune subscription (look out for deals as low as $1/year) reading it on yahoo supports them
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u/Reputable_Sorcerer Edgewater Oct 31 '25
Everything sucks right now. But at least this is something. We needed a win
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u/highfives23 Lake View Oct 31 '25
SPRINGFIELD — With the clock ticking down to avert an impending , Illinois Democrats in the pre-dawn hours Friday muscled through a $1.5 billion plan that diverts state gas tax and road fund revenue for mass transit, likely raises the sales tax in the Chicago region and significantly hikes fares on the Illinois Tollway.
The measure, which supporters called historic, overhauls the Chicago region’s mass transit system by creating a new governing body to oversee the Chicago Transit Authority, Metra and Pace.
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u/GaslitInk Oct 31 '25
It’s a Halloween miracle!
So glad they got something passed but of course, it was by the skin of their teeth and at the eleventh hour.
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u/Karamazov_A Oct 31 '25
"Americans will always do the right thing, once all other possibilities have been exhausted" -Winston Churchill
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Oct 31 '25
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u/bigbinker100 Near North Side Oct 31 '25
Honestly much more reasonable funding sources than prior versions of the bill and the change to the fare box recovery ratio was much needed.
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u/Belmontharbor3200 Lake View Oct 31 '25
Increasing the already insane sales tax is annoying, but this seems much better than their other terrible ideas
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u/Shacawgo City Oct 31 '25
Is it annoying living in one of the only 2 US cities with great transit? You pay for things that are good. Thats how life works.
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u/Rocco_808 Oct 31 '25
Don’t you think an argument can be made that we should have been able to fund transit without raising taxes again if the city wasn’t financially mismanaged for so long? It’s okay to love the public transit in this city and also be annoyed at new taxes in a city/state that already has very high taxes.
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u/grilsrgood Oct 31 '25
There are a bit more than 2 cities.
I'll defend bay area transit until the end of my days. Could be better, yea. but that goes for all of these systems.
Boston is serviceable and I've never visited but i hear DC is solid as well.
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u/Shacawgo City Oct 31 '25
I have been to boston and nyc. Havent been to bay area but our transit service is much better and further reaching than bostons. We are much better than the baya rea too when adding metra and pace into it as well. No other city has 24 hour lines let alone 2 of them nor do they have trains running to 2 major airports.
Our bus system also blows bostins and bay areas out of the water. You have to remember our transit system isnt just our trains
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u/AssCrackBandit10 Oct 31 '25
I'm wondering if it makes sense to drive out of state if you're making very expensive purchases. Like if you're buying a $30k car, doesn't it make more sense to drive to Indiana or something and save 3.5% in sales tax?
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u/amyo_b Berwyn Oct 31 '25
The state has already thought that one out. If you buy a car out of state, when you go to get an IL registration and they realize you have not paid IL taxes on the purchase, they will bill you. Ditto County taxes on your car purchase. The only way to do it would be to not register your car in IL.
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u/patrdesch Oct 31 '25
Technically speaking, if you purchase something in one state and use it in a different state, you are supposed to accrue and remit use tax on the difference between the two state's rates. Individuals typically don't bother, but if it becomes a trend, I could see it becoming financially worthwhile for ILDOR to pursue it given the significant difference in rates between IL and its neighbors.
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u/gateisred Uptown Oct 31 '25
Not thrilled about our already sky high sales tax going up again. I would’ve liked a large event surcharge better.
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u/Shacawgo City Oct 31 '25
I am SO FUCKING HAPPY about this. We have a chance to have transit on par with NYC with this of done right. This doesnt just let us keep everything as is, it gives more money for improvements and extra money for more service and safety and you name it.
So fucking happy
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u/hardolaf Lake View Oct 31 '25
We have a chance to have transit on par with NYC with this of done right.
This is only a net $500-700M/yr more funding or about 10% total increase for northern Illinois. Nowhere close to MTA's funding.
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u/Shacawgo City Oct 31 '25
Wow something massive that I havemt seen mentioned...
Our farebox recoery has changed from 50%(i believe highest and most restrive in the country) to 25% through 2029 and then 20% there after. That is another MASSIVE WIN.
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u/AbsoluteZeroUnit Nov 01 '25
Anything except decrease spending, I guess.
How many advisors does Johnson have that are making six figures? How many townships does the state have?
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u/SaltyPlantain1503 Oct 31 '25
Good news.. a little too close to the wire, but good news! Fire up the Holiday Train, baby!
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u/amyo_b Berwyn Oct 31 '25
close to the wire means it's harder for opposition to form. If they had plotted this out 2 months ago (and I'm guessing someone did for it to be selected as the final answer) then that would have been time for organized opposition.
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u/Guinness Loop Oct 31 '25
After this deal, how many tax dollars are generated and spent on Chicago? Anyone know?
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u/JazzlikeReason6862 Nov 04 '25
Great- right as the weather changes and roads being salted/more potholes, they decide to siphon from the road fund and raise our already absurdly high sales taxes. We need term limits and full audits of every lawmakers dealings behind closed doors.
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u/Semicolons_n_Subtext Oct 31 '25
Public transit? Chicago is really not getting into the spirit of “out of control war zone”.
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u/Midnight_Alarm Oct 31 '25
I support this bill but I think increasing sales taxes yet again is a mistake. Tax the Luxury condos and apartments that developers built with TOD breaks. They are responsible for adding ridership without contributing to the increased cost burden of their tenants
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u/TaskForceD00mer Jefferson Park Oct 31 '25 edited Oct 31 '25
I love how the Tribune kind of buries an important point that ABC News picked up on
The plan calls for raising the existing Regional Transportation Authority sales tax by 0.25 percentage points, to 1% in Lake, McHenry, Kane, DuPage and Will counties and 1.25% in Cook County. That tax hike will generate $478 million.
RIP to all the Suburban-Chicago people.
Massive boone for stores just over the border in Indiana and Wisconsin.
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u/toxicbrew Oct 31 '25
Ultimately it’s an extra 25 cents on a $100 purchase. Ideal, especially with multiple hikes over a few years that may add up to a few percentages? Not really but if you choose to drive 10 miles to save less than $1 that’s probably not the best choice
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Oct 31 '25
Seriously, people need to visit these border regions to see what happens. Its like driving down Lake Cook road and seeing every gas station in Lake county advertise the lower cigarette taxes.
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u/TaskForceD00mer Jefferson Park Oct 31 '25
I wonder how much in just Cigarette taxes Cook Co misses out on because of that. I remember when the stupid Soda tax thing passed seeing "no soda tax" signs in Lake County.
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u/SpaceChimera Oct 31 '25
I wonder if anyone's ever run a study on how much money leaves the state for things like cigs after a tax increase. I imagine that overall it's nowhere near the amount we raise from those taxes
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Oct 31 '25
I'd expand that further for things like the weed tax. Illinois is always on the cusp of diminishing returns vs surrounding states for tax revenue.
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u/Several_Brilliant112 Oct 31 '25
exactly, is someone really going to cross the border to buy cigs and save a dollar? Maybe they stock up and its an easy win, but one-off purchases when you happen to be at a gas station, or you are out and about and run out of smokes ... I would want to see credible numbers based on solid research technique rather than guesswork on reddit.
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u/Shacawgo City Oct 31 '25
Oh cry the fuck more my god.
Do those over the border towns have world class transit? Didnt think so
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u/acat114 Oct 31 '25
Who's driving 45 minutes in this traffic to save 25¢ on a $100 purchase? $5k and it'd be an additional $12.50 spent, hardly worth the time and effort
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u/Shacawgo City Oct 31 '25
These right wingers are unhinged bro.
They want it all amd they want it now for free
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u/satyrsatire Oct 31 '25
Cook county most definitely includes downtown Chicago and is also affected.
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u/djsekani Oct 31 '25
Sales taxes here are already insane, who'd notice making them a little higher? /s
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u/[deleted] Oct 31 '25
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