In an overnight marathon session, the Illinois General Assembly has passed a massive $1.5 billion bill to address a looming mass transit “fiscal cliff.”
The rescue package will include an increase in tolls on Illinois Tollways, and will also shift millions of dollars in motor fuel sales tax revenues to transit purposes, along with interest on the state’s road fund.
Senate Bill 2111 will also create the Northern Illinois Transit Authority, which will shift authority from the Regional Transit Authority to a new entity that will oversee operations of the Chicago Transit Authority, Pace and Metra.
According to State Sen. Ram Villivalam, the NITA’s board will be comprised of 20 members, with five appointments apiece from Illinois’ governor, Chicago’s mayor and the Cook County board president. Five more members will be appointed by the county executives of the other five collar counties of DuPage, Kane, McHenry, Lake and Will counties.
“Through this measure, we are ensuring that Illinoisans, no matter where they live, have access to safe, reliable, affordable and integrated public transit, for years to come” said Villivalam in a statement.
The measure passed the House by a 72-32 vote just before 2 a.m. Friday at the very end of the fall veto session, and passed the Senate by a 35-22 vote, sending the bill to Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s desk.
The bill comes after a marathon negotiation, which saw different tax revenue streams added and deleted from the final text. Originally the bill was set to include taxes on streaming services like Netflix, a $5-per-ticket tax on concert and sporting event tickets, and a tax on unrealized capitals gains, but those sources were all cut from the final bill.
All of the revenue generating components of the bill are designed to close a massive budget gap caused by the expiration of COVID-era funding from the federal government, and the new bill is designed to not only close that gap but also to heavily invest in new projects and safety initiatives related to transit.
According to text of the measure, tolls for passenger vehicles will increase by 45 cents when the measure goes into effect. Tolls for commercial vehicles will increase by 30%, according to the bill.
The measure also shifts motor fuel sales tax revenues into mass transit, with annual interest accrued by the state’s Road Fund also being put toward transit.
The transit funding proposal also grants authorization for the newly formed NITA to assess an additional 0.25% sales tax in the collar counties.
The bulk of that revenue would go into Chicago and the collar counties, while a percentage will also be earmarked for transit projects in areas outside of that area, according to the legislation.
One other component of the original proposal was also missing, as lawmakers had slashed a proposed delivery tax from the measure that would have assessed a $1.50 fee on each delivery order statewide.
The measure will need to be signed by Pritzker in order to become law.