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135 14. Boosting Regional Transportation The RTA provides a classic study into the kind of hostility that can and does arise among Chicago, suburban, and downstate citizens. One thing we didn’t get done in the 1983 spring session was the resurrection of a much-needed subsidy for the Regional Transportation Authority (RTA). For some reason, Governor Jim Thompson and Mayor Jane Byrne had negotiated a deal in 1979 to eliminate any state subsidy to the RTA. That proved to be ill advised because the RTA was running $100 million in the red, and there seemed to be no way to get it back on track financially. So during the income tax debate, some of us talked about a new formula that would generate an additional $75 million for the RTA. I strongly supported it, although the arguments against a larger state subsidy had been mostly winning for more than ten years. The RTA provides a classic study into the kind of hostility that can and does arise among Chicago, suburban, and downstate citizens and their representatives. When the RTA first came into existence in 1973, suburban residents were angry about spending money on the city of Chicago ’s transportation system. Such ranting has continued off and on, really, for almost forty years. In 1973, in my second term as senator, the Illinois Department of Transportation was barely a year old. Republicans controlled both chambers of the General Assembly, but only by a slim one-vote majority in each chamber. Both of its leaders—Senate president William Harris of Pontiac and Speaker W. Robert Blair of Park Forest— were the main RTA advocates. Both Governor Dan Walker and Mayor Richard J. Daley also wanted a regional transit authority, but each had different plans on how to make it happen. All the public transportation services were on their own and threatening to increase fares signifi­­ cantly or stop running. Joseph A. Tecson, an early regional transportation boosting regional transportation 136 advocate and expert, summarized the problem succinctly: “In 1973, public transportation provided a crisis atmosphere in Springfield. . . . The CTA [Chicago Transit Authority] was issuing statements that it would be forced to either raise fares or cut services. Suburban bus companies were threatening to go out of business, because they were running out of money to meet payrolls and pay for fuel. The commuter railroads, except for one, were operating in the red and were filing petitions with the Illinois Commerce Commission asking for substantial rate increases.”1 That is why it made sense to a lot of legislators, including me, to establish a regional transit authority for Chicago and for the counties of Cook, DuPage, Kane, Lake, McHenry, and Will. Public transportation couldn’t pay its own way around the region, so I thought the state had to do something. There were many studies, including those from a task force put together by Governor Richard Ogilvie and from the Illinois Transportation Study Commission, which held a series of public hearings chaired by Speaker Blair. Thirty-one Chicago business and labor leaders organized a coalition urging us to create a regional authority to provide for coordinated public transportation services, facilities, and funding. It’s interesting to look back and read in the Chicago Tribune that the coalition sent a telegram to “four top political leaders,” meaning, at that time, the governor, the House Speaker, the Senate president, and the mayor of Chicago.2 Today, the “four leaders” would mean the majority and minority leaders of the four caucuses in the Illinois General Assembly and not the Chicago mayor, so times have changed in that regard. At any rate, the idea of a regional transit authority had bipartisan support but became controversial. In the fall of 1973, we had five “special sessions” going in addition to the regular session of the General Assembly. A special session typically is called to address a specific topic. The RTA was the topic of the third special session, but nobody could agree on what to do. The most divisive issue centered on imposing a half-cent sales tax increase in the RTA region to subsidize public transportation and, of course, on how to spread out the money for bus and train services. It was becoming clear we weren’t going to pass any RTA bill by the scheduled adjournment on Saturday, November 17. Members said the issue was dead; so did the front pages of all the newspapers.3 Thanksgiving was less than a week away. A...

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