Politicians have long urged never to let a crisis go to waste. That is especially true for a crisis that offers a chance to do something about waste itself. The fiscal cliff facing Chicago’s three transit service boards — the CTA, Metra and Pace — provides such an opportunity.
The Regional Transportation Authority, which oversees the service boards, has failed to fix systemic inefficiencies and an inability to cooperate. Now, the RTA faces an annual operations shortfall that will require a minimum of $771 million to keep functioning. The Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP) and the RTA estimate that the final price tag is actually closer to $1.5 billion to make needed overhauls. Without new revenue to fill the budget gap, worst-case scenario transit cuts could reach 40% beginning in 2026. In order to justify a billion-dollar ask of taxpayers, transit governance reform must precede funding.
For years, poor governance has doomed the Chicago region to an inefficient, uncoordinated transit system that fails to adequately serve its riders. Endless rider anecdotes and media exposés highlighting safety, cleanliness, reliability and lack of interagency coordination have metastasized into a narrative of neglect that in turn discourages ridership and revenue. That is why any state support for Chicago’s regional transit must be preceded with governance reform and restructuring.
Accounts of deficits in service commonly focus on that service’s board, rightly prompting questions of how and why. But for every such account, there should be another question — where is the RTA? The RTA is charged with coordinating the three regional transit operators. If Metra, the CTA and Pace are failing to work together, competing for money and ridership instead of collaborating to provide integrated transit for Chicagoans and suburbanites alike, where is the RTA? The RTA and others are pursuing enhancements of the status quo by simply giving the RTA more power over the service boards. But the RTA has never effectively used the authority it was given during transit reform in 2008. For example, it is still impossible to transfer between the CTA, Metra and Pace without paying twice or while using the same card — despite a legislative mandate from the state that the RTA simplify transfers by 2015. Once again, where is the RTA?
As lawmakers negotiate on governance reform before the end of the spring session this month, we urge them not to waste this moment with incremental improvements that tinker at the margins. We need a new regional agency and a new brand to bring back riders. The final landing place must be consolidation of the three oversight boards into a single, new governing board with full power over decision-making and planning related to fares, schedules, administration, capital planning, investment, equipment and procurement.
It is also critical to fix the structural flaw that has crippled innovation under the current governance structure: Decisions must be approved by a supermajority of the RTA’s board. Since the board is evenly split among appointees from Chicago, Cook County and the collar counties, the veto power of any one group of appointees ends up effectively paralyzing it. As a result, the existing structure incentivizes the Metra, Pace and CTA boards to make decisions grounded in maintaining their individual fiefdoms — with no contemplation of their relation to the entire Chicago region.
One other critical piece will be needed: inspector general oversight. A consolidated governance board will always be behind the curve without an effectively empowered and resourced independent inspector general. That means an inspector general with both investigative and performance audit authority and expertise. Currently, the state-level Office of Executive Inspector General (OEIG) has jurisdiction over the employees and operation of RTA and the three service boards. But it only has investigative authority over allegations of misconduct or ethical violations and no auditing power. That is why we have to rely on the media to tell us about the CTA’s annual overtime bill and Metra spending $4.6 million on lobbyists. Additional authority could be given to the OEIG, but that agency is already overstretched, overseeing hundreds of governmental bodies and tens of thousands of state employees. A better way to strengthen oversight would be to create an independent inspector general to exclusively handle investigations and performance audits of the transit agencies.
A thriving public transit system is the beating heart of our region’s economy. Getting transit reform right is critical to attracting and keeping a talented workforce and equitably growing our tax base. This means addressing reforms before funding. And to justify funding, the reforms must be transformative. This crisis is our best and maybe last opportunity to fix these significant structural problems.
Joe Ferguson is president of the Civic Federation of Chicago.
