GETTING DOWN TO GAS TAX?
City transportation chief says increase needed to pay for backlog of projects
Mayor Rahm Emanuel has made “remarkable” progress on the transportation front at a time of “extreme financial stress,” but Illinois desperately needs a capital bill bankrolled by a gas tax increase to pay for a backlog of projects, a top mayoral aide said Tuesday.
After spending the last four years feuding with outgoing Gov. Bruce Rauner, Emanuel has put a transportation funding bill at the top of his wish list for the four months he’ll have to work with Gov.-elect J.B. Pritzker before leaving office.
On Tuesday, the outgoing mayor introduced his Transportation Commissioner Rebekah Scheinfeld before her luncheon address to the City Club of Chicago.
Scheinfeld took the ball and ran with it.
She argued that “current revenue streams” can’t keep pace with the “state of good repair needs” for the existing transportation infrastructure, let alone the need to expand capacity.
“With the election of a new governor, we have the opportunity for a new start. The state has not had a capital bill identifying additional revenue streams for transportation in nearly 10 years. And we haven’t raised our gas tax in nearly 30 years,” she said.
Scheinfeld noted there is “talk of something happening in Washington, too” on the transportation funding front.
But she cautioned her audience not to “hold our breath,” but instead, to seize the “real sense of momentum” created by Pritzker’s election.
“The mayor has called on the region and the state’s leaders to come together to address the issue. He has been specific about a gas tax. Let us seize the opportunity to hammer out a long-term transportation funding solution,” she said.
Scheinfeld pointed to the TIFIA loan used to bankroll the downtown Riverwalk, the transit TIF supporting the massive overhaul of the CTA’s Red and Purple Lines and the sale of air rights helping to bankroll redevelopment of Union Station as examples of Emanuel’s “creative solutions” to transportation funding.
She promised to open the “first segment” of the long-stalled Navy Pier Flyover by year’s end to carry pedestrians over Grand and Illinois streets.
Scheinfeld even touted, almost as a faitaccompli, visionary billionaire Elon Musk’s ambition to build a “Tesla-in-a-tunnel” transit line to whisk travelers between downtown and O’Hare Airport.
Never mind the controversy about the SEC investigation that forced Musk out as chairman of Tesla Inc. or Musk’s self-inflicted wounds or personal behavior.
“This project has massive potential as a game-changer — and it will be constructed and operated entirely through private funding sources,” Scheinfeld said.
In a wide-ranging speech that highlighted Emanuel’s greatest hits on the transportation front, Scheinfeld talked extensively about the need to “make investments to reaffirm the real value” of CTA bus service to reverse a precipitous decline.
The CTA has been hemorrhaging bus riders — with a decline of 10 million rides last year and a 21 percent drop over the last six years.
The jury is still out on whether the downtown bus rapid transit system known as Loop Link was worth the $32 million investment and whether it really has increased travel times.
But Scheinfeld rendered her own verdict. The city’s investment has “resulted in faster and more reliable CTA bus service in the Loop,” prompting ridership to grow while other lines are declining, she said.
“Folks can quibble about whether we’ve achieved the exact targets planned for the project. But I say most importantly Loop Link shows what is possible,” she said.
“We can redesign our streets to advantage and prioritize high-capacity transit options while also organizing traffic to better serve all users of the roadway. We are not widening roads. We are rethinking them to leverage precious space to move the most people — not the most cars.”