This blog post presents an overview of the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) FY2024 operating budget. The CTA’s fiscal year is January 1 through December 31.Federal funds have been critical in maintaining transit service in the Chicago region since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The FY2024 CTA operating budget is balanced with $472.5 million in federal COVID relief funds, representing approximately 23.7% of the entire operating budget. The FY2025 projected budget gap of $481.2 million…
How should Illinois pay for public transit? This was one of the key questions posed at a recent policy forum on the topic of public transportation in the Chicago region hosted by the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, the Civic Federation and the Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago. The policy forum, held on April 13, 2023, targeted a pressing issue: transit agencies in Chicago and across the nation are facing a crisis. Ridership has plummeted since the COVID-19 pandemic began and…
The Civic Federation is pleased to partner with the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago and the Civic Committee to co-host a transportation forum on Thursday, April 13, 2023: “Public Transit in a Post-COVID World: Building a Financially Stable, Equitable and Accessible Mass Transit System.” The half-day conference will be held from 8:15 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, 230 S. LaSalle Street. This will be a hybrid event with both in-person and remote options for…
The CTA’s FY2023 budget of $1.8 billion was approved by the Regional Transit Authority Board of Directors on December 15, 2022. This blog presents an overview of that budget as well as data for CTA fiscal plans from FY2019 through 2025. Some of the key highlights of the current FY2023 budget and future fiscal plans include: The CTA has not cut bus or rail service, although there have been some service disruptions. Operating expenses have been projected to increase by 30.2% or $457.6 million…
The General Assembly has approved and Governor Pritzker has signed an approximately $46.5 billion FY2023 capital budget. Unlike the State’s annual General Funds budget, which is intended to cover only the cost of operations for the current fiscal year, capital appropriations are reauthorized over multiple years as planning, engineering and construction of capital investments commence. Since 2005 the capital budget has been proposed in a separate document from the State’s operating budget and is…
This blog post presents an overview of the Chicago Transit Authority’s FY2022 operating budget, including a summary of how federal stimulus funds were used to balance the budget, and an update on its recent $350 million debt issuance. The Chicago Transit Authority, like other transit agencies around the country, faces serious challenges to its future operations and fiscal solvency in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Federal funds have been critical in maintaining transit service in the…
The Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) released a $3.5 billion, five year FY2022-FY2026 capital plan in October 2021. The CTA prepares a multi-year, comprehensive capital improvement plan (CIP) at the same time as its annual operating budget. It is included in the operating budget book. The first year of the CIP is the capital budget for that fiscal year. The CTA capital budget for FY2022 is projected to be nearly $1.1 billion. This an 8.1%, or $80.9 million, increase from the original FY2021…
The Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) released a $3.4 billion, five year FY2021-FY2025 capital plan in October 2020. The CTA prepares a multi-year, comprehensive capital improvement plan (CIP) at the same time as its annual operating budget. It is included in the operating budget book. The first year of the CIP is the capital budget for that fiscal year. The CTA capital budget for FY2021 is projected to be $995.4 million. This a 34.4%, or $522.9 million, decrease from the original FY2020 capital…
On August 12, 2020 the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) approved Ordinance 020-070 amending its FY2020 budget to incorporate $690.1 million of the CARES Act funding it received from the federal government in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The CARES Act funding will help offset the decline in system generated revenue and public funding.[1] This is the first time in nearly a decade that the CTA has had to amend its operating budget mid-year due to a drastic change in revenues.[2] The CTA…
The Civic Federation is pleased to announce that Dorval R. Carter, Jr., President of the Chicago Transit Authority, will be the 2019 Motorola Solutions Foundation Excellence in Public Service Award honoree. President Carter has more than 30 years of experience in public service, both at the local and federal level. In his current role, he is responsible for the nation’s second-largest transit agency, which provides approximately 1.5 million rides on…
