Chicago area commuters could face more toll booths and be hit with higher bus and rail fares under a new national transportation policy proposed Thursday by President Bush.
The president`s plan pushes more of the funding burden to state and local governments and to users themselves as Washington backs away from its historic role as the big bankroller for transportation improvement projects.
But under the Bush strategy, Illinois also may be able to construct roads that otherwise couldn`t be built, and the state could gain a competitive advantage in vying for a dwindling supply of federal funds, officials said.
The 129-page proposal, drafted under the direction of U.S. Transportation Secretary Samuel Skinner, is intended to set the course for federal policy and legislation into the 21st Century.
It immediately received decidedly mixed reviews both from public officials and business leaders as they pondered its effects.
”If we work together in this joint venture, America can continue to be the world leader in transportation,” Bush asserted.
But Larry Christmas, executive director of the Northeastern Illinois Planning Commission, had a different view.
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”Everywhere in the county, there is not enough money to take care of the existing . . . transportation systems, as well as expand them,” he said. ”If there is a shift to more and more local funding, it will make the problem worse.”
As it is, the states have seen a steadily dwindling supply of money for transportation from Washington.
For example, Illinois received an average of $625 million a year in federal funding for roads and an average of $390 million a year for public transit between 1983 and 1986, according to the Illinois Department of Transportation.
Between 1987 and 1989, those figures fell to $500 million and $340 million, respectively.
Because of the mounting cost of repairing existing roads, construction of new highways has become impossible in many cases because of lack of money.
But Bush`s proposal could lead to new road construction in certain cases, said Richard Adorjan, an IDOT spokesman.
Under current law, federal funds cannot be used for tollways, he said. But the president`s policy would provide a new flexibility, and a mix of private and federal dollars could be combined to build new thoroughfares.
That could improve the prospects for a number of new projects, including a proposed tollway between Chicago and Kansas City, Adorjan said.
The concept of tollways is nothing new to Illinois. The state has 273 miles of these driver-financed superhighways. The most recent addition to the system, Du Page County`s North-South Tollway, was cited by Skinner as an example of what can be accomplished without federal help.
Under Bush`s approach, the federal government also would give the most financial assistance to the state and local governments that provide the biggest local share. That could give Illinois-which has increased gasoline taxes by 6 cents a gallon in the last year to raise more money-a competitive advantage over other states that have been less aggressive, officials said.
”The federal government is moving to a strategy of rewarding those states that do more for themselves and penalizing states that do less,” said Gov. James Thompson. ”I agree with that philosophy because Illinois has always been willing to do more for itself. We`re not standing there looking for a federal handout without putting forth any effort.”
The new approach also could bode well for two projects embraced by Mayor Richard Daley. One is a $600 million trolley system that would whisk commuters and visitors through downtown. Plans call for funding two-thirds of its cost from state grants and a special tax imposed on Loop property owners, with the federal government picking up only one-third of the cost.
The other project is Daley`s controversial Southeast Side airport. He proposes to pay for the $5 billion venture largely through a ”user” tax imposed on passengers who board at O`Hare International and Midway Airports.
But the impact of the new policy could fall heavily on public transit systems nationwide, including the Regional Transportation Authority.
Gayle Franzen, who followed his friend Skinner as RTA chairman after Skinner`s Cabinet appointment last year, acknowledged that ”transit, without question, is hurting.”
The Chicago Transit Authority, the RTA`s biggest operating subsidiary, would lose about $50 million a year in federal operating assistance under the plan. That would put ”a definite hole” in the agency`s $700 million-a-year budget, according to one CTA official, and it could spark fare increases or service reductions.
The CTA already is under heavy financial pressure. Agency officials proposed to balance the authority`s 1990 budget by reducing bus and rail service and closing a string of stations. But the public outcry was so intense that they were forced to cut administrative and other non-operating expenses instead.
In the past, the federal government covered about 75 percent of the cost of capital improvement projects for the RTA system, with the state and RTA picking up the rest. Now the split is about 35 percent federal, 65 percent local, officials said.
If that ratio erodes even further, it could spell problems in everything from bus and rail car purchases to bridge repairs, they asserted.
”We could not afford to lose the capital monies we receive,” said Jeffrey Ladd, chairman of Metra, the RTA`s commuter rail arm. If that happened, increased state funding would be needed but, ”given the state`s budget situation, I don`t anticipate a great swell of support to do that,” he said.
Whether the president`s plan will gain the approval of Congress remains to be seen, but the proposal already is catching flak.
”Once again, this administration has outlined a need and defined a problem, but refused to take the necessary steps to achieve the desired solution,” declared Sen. Alan Dixon (D-Ill.) ”This is not my definition of leadership.”
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