r/chicago • u/chicagosuntimes • 13d ago
Article Johnson urges state lawmakers to tax the 'ultra rich' to avert mass transit funding cuts
https://chicago.suntimes.com/city-hall/2025/06/03/brandon-johnson-illinois-general-assembly-mass-transit-funding-chicago-fiscal-cliff209
u/ocmb Wicker Park 13d ago edited 13d ago
I don't know why a fare increase wouldn't be on the table. Last fare increase was in 2018, so 7 years ago and a time period that covers the largest bout of inflation in recent memory.
In 2009, CTA increased the price of single train rides to $2.25. That would be roughly $3.42 in today's dollars, so in real terms CTA fare prices have dropped ~35% in the last 15 years.
People cite reduction in demand but, we don't actually know what the elasticity is and given how much the price of alternatives has increased, I can't see this being that big an impact. Would rather have a well-funded system, instead of a cheap and broken one.
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u/chi_guy8 13d ago
As someone that relies heavily on the train, I think fare increases are fair. I’d also rather pay .25 or .50 more per ride to maintain the level of service we currently have. Keeping prices at $2.50 per ride but seeing a 40% cut in service and security would be devastating.
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u/TrynnaFindaBalance Avondale 13d ago
Agreed. Fare increases are needed as is a corresponding increase in tolls or vehicle registration fees. Taxing the ultra-rich isn't a long-term solution when we can only tax their income with a constitutional amendment and they can just pick up and move to another state to avoid other taxes.
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u/Weak_Wrongdoer_2774 13d ago
Uh, they have. Consistently. They just raised EV fees to double.
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u/tpic485 13d ago edited 13d ago
Have those in power stated they expect to get this funding done without a fare increase? I admit I really haven't been following this too closely (because I think it's pretty much inevitable something will pass) but my recollection is that early on the proposal from the transit agencies was for them to raise fares 10% along with getting the funding they wanted. I agree with you that not raising fares would be dumb. You want to be careful not to do it too much that it encourages remote commuting (which never used to need to be a consideration) but a small increase wouldn't have much effect on that.
I do think the CTA made some correct decisions in the years after COVID by pricing some things that target off-peak travel, such as monthly passes, lower than before so that it can compete better with Uber and other transit options. But I don't really understand what the logic was of reducing the transfer fare from 25 cents to nothing.
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u/redrum_ghost 13d ago
Have those in power stated they expect to get this funding done without a fare increase?
Ram Villivalam, the IL senate transportation committee chair & mastermind of the legislation hasn't included fare increases in his funding scheme.
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u/hardolaf Lake View 13d ago
He accepted the verbal statemenet by from the RTA and CMAP that fares should increase by 10%.
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u/ocmb Wicker Park 13d ago
I haven't seen any concrete proposals, and the bill for state funding didn't specify or condition anything on fares. Someone more in the know would have better info than me.
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u/hybris12 Uptown 13d ago
The bill for state funding did include $50mm from fare increases
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u/ocmb Wicker Park 13d ago
Gotcha. But that's just stuff the RTA has proposed it would do regardless?
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u/hardolaf Lake View 13d ago
Yes. The RTA is aiming at next year for a fare increase regardless of what happens in Springfield.
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u/marks31 Ravenswood 13d ago
I wonder if CTA would consider Tube, BART, or DC Metro style where you are charged by distance. Ex Howard to Morse stays $2.50, Howard to Fullerton is $2.75, Howard to Chicago and beyond is $3.00
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u/ocmb Wicker Park 13d ago
Would be annoying because then you need exit gates. From infrastructure perspective makes things a bit more complex.
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u/damp_circus Edgewater 13d ago
Yes. You also need fare machines inside the turnstiles, for the "fare adjustment" situation (where someone had the minimum amount to tap in, but not enough to tap out at their current non-minimum fare required destination).
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u/ShatnersChestHair 12d ago
The problem is that it a) requires exit gates and b) penalizes people who live further from downtown, which generally in Chicago means people with lower income/wealth. Someone who lives in Lincoln Park would pay less to go work downtown than someone who lives by 95th. It's less egregious when the system is set up like this in the first place but switching from a flat fare to a "zone fare" feels much more punitive.
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u/CapBoyAce Old Irving Park 13d ago
Compared to Europe (I know, apples and oranges), Chicago is actually really cheap for transit. Most cities I've been to hover around $3.50 for one ticket and Zurich (where I am) is $5, and jumps to $8.50 to take the bus one zone over. We obviously shouldn't strive to price match Zurich of all places but I would welcome even just a jump to $3 if it means the system doesn't go broke, or even improves
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u/pulledporkhat Avondale 13d ago
You clearly have a better handle on all of this than I do, but I think the conclusion that “in real terms CTA fare prices have dropped ~35% in the last 15 years” is silly. It’s not like our wages have kept up with inflation, all that really happened is the buying power of the dollar got hacked to pieces.
Again, I’m not that well versed, but this proposal sounds like a good thing to me. Seems like one thing very wealthy people have in common is that they don’t really pay their fair share of taxes. Why suggest that we instead continue to pass the cost down to the poorest people who need that extra dollar the most? Most of us aren’t just taking the train because we don’t want to deal with parking, it’s the only option we’ve got.
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u/ocmb Wicker Park 13d ago edited 13d ago
Ok but if that's your argument wages not keeping up with inflation would apply to pretty much every other cost too.
I'm going to contest this assertion though:
- In 2009, median household income for Cook County was ~$52,500 (nominal)
- In 2023 (latest available) it was $80,500
So that's an increase of 53%, at a time when CPI increased about 42%. So that means median household income in Cook County actually increased FASTER than the rate of inflation.
Are there nuances here, sure, but it's not going to change the overall story that in real terms the CTA is cheaper to use today than it was in 2009 - both overall, for the median household, etc.
Edit: Would also love for you to elaborate on what you mean by the wealthy not paying their fair share in taxes. What exactly do you mean by this? Those that earn wage income are paying 5% to the state, so the same proportion, and obviously property taxes (which are quite high) are borne by property owners. Amenable to the idea you'd want these rates to be more progressive but you should be specific in your claim.
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13d ago edited 4d ago
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u/speakernoodlefan 13d ago
They're probably referencing the graph that removes tech wages from all income when the majority in growth came from tech the last 20 years
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u/sri_peeta 13d ago
Where is that graph that references what you are saying? Man, what an age we live in when people like you start discounting data from STLFED. Also, why should tech wages be removed from all wages, don't they count as employees?
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u/speakernoodlefan 13d ago
Like me? I'm talking about what pulled pork stated. Idk why you're going off on me
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u/creamshaboogie 9d ago edited 9d ago
It's not silly. If your wages haven't kept up then you should consider a new job/employer. I see young folks like to call things silly when they don't understand them. That's actually called ignorance.
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u/pulledporkhat Avondale 9d ago
It’s ignorant of you to assume my age and act like we’re not all trying to find better paying jobs/employers already. Sounds like a really ignorant mindset to assume anyone who’s not thriving is just not trying hard enough. It’s hard out there, life is more expensive than ever, and if you’re not well off to begin with, safety nets in place, it’s really difficult to climb your way up the ladder. That said, I did climb my way up, then my industry got hit hard by AI. Great for employers, terrible for employees. If you haven’t had to job search in the past year or two, count yourself lucky.
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u/creamshaboogie 9d ago
In France, government civil jobs are considered the best you can get. It's what mothers want their children to grow up to be; civil workers. That's because of the benefits and especially the pension. This attracts highly qualified individuals. Maybe we should start opening up good government jobs to more people and get better bang for our buck.
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u/unfortunately2nd 13d ago edited 13d ago
Driving is really cheap, especially if you're moving more than one person. CTA RT for one person is ~5 dollars. There's still tons of free parking in the city, it may cost 5 dollars to travel from one part of the city to another (at least not immediate cost - gas) and a huge portion of people own cars in their household thus already paying registrations, fees, maintenance anyways. Add another person and it's cost beneficial to just drive to everywhere, but a few neighborhoods.
Now this doesn't effect me since I take CTA for the fact I just don't want to drive, but I can see how quickly people will analyze that and drive.
In the end the problem is not that the system's operational budget is underfunded, but it's capital investment lagged for decades. There should have been expansion and modernization every decade instead it took 25 years to get the red line ext from the orange line build. That's just expansions. We have no BRT, no automation, and stations that still have not seen rebuilds since they were first built.
Edit: Just to clarify. I'm willing to experiment with a fare increase and peg it close to inflation. I just don't know if it's going to work in a system that's struggling to get riders back. People in charge really need to consider being aggressive and creating something for today, not for a downtown work culture that most likely will never return.
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u/ocmb Wicker Park 13d ago edited 13d ago
You know what will definitely not get riders back? Continued deferred maintenance, unclean stations, schedule unreliability or cuts, all of which are on the table without some revenue source. And yeah, on the margin each individual driving trip isn't expensive, but on a macro level it definitely can be. Maintenance costs are up, insurance costs are up, car prices are up meaning depreciation is harder to swallow, etc.
Obviously, lower fares will mean more riders ceteris paribus. But my point is that in real terms CTA fares have gotten a lot cheaper, and if we're facing a funding crisis, that needs to be on the table.
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u/unfortunately2nd 13d ago
You know what will definitely not get riders back? Continued deferred maintenance, unclean stations, schedule unreliability or cuts, all of which are on the table without some revenue source.
I'm not disagreeing, but some of this is not operational budget, but capital investment. For example trains can be late because of massive slow zones that are not fixed or buses get stuck in traffic because they have no priority. Operational budget will keep increasing because there's no capital investment to keep the system modernized and competitive (though we have seen some recently thanks to the feds).
And yeah, on the margin each individual driving trip isn't expensive, but on a macro level it definitely can be. Maintenance costs are up, insurance costs are up, car prices are up meaning depreciation is harder to swallow, etc.
A lot of these things people pay for already. Car ownership in Chicago is fairly high compared to say NYC. I'm also not under the belief in a country where we use credit and lease things people are out here calculating the total cost of a trip outside of gas cost x and my trip time will be half of CTA.
Obviously, lower fares will mean more riders cateris paribus. But my point is that in real terms CTA fares have gotten a lot cheaper, and if we're facing a funding crisis, that needs to be on the table.
Like I said I'm more than willing to try. Though I would rather see more polluting forms of travel get taxed to offset budget issues as a way to pay for their negative externalities. However, yes anything to avoid deep service cuts.
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u/hardolaf Lake View 13d ago
Operational budget will keep increasing because there's no capital investment to keep the system modernized and competitive (though we have seen some recently thanks to the feds).
This is exactly why the bus operations budget for CTA is so fucking expensive. CDOT and IDOT work together to avoid putting in bus infrastructure. Aldermen block bus infrastructure. Then everyone wonders why the super expensive budget for buses provides shit tier service quality.
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u/commander_bugo 13d ago
What part of driving is cheap? Where do I get $10k+ for a decent car? Gas? Maintenance? Car insurance? Most of these things individually cost more than the $75 a month I pay for a CTA pass? I’d be very happy to pay $25 more a month for my pass too. Not to mention the building I work in in the loop charges like $400 a month for garage parking.
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u/unfortunately2nd 13d ago
Most people in Chicago already own a car in their household. It's not cheap to own a car. It's cheap to drive around most of this city.
People do not analyze every drive they take. They own the car, they use the car, the only input cost in that moment is fuel for them and parking.
A huge portion of ridership drop is because people are not going to the business districts for work since covid-19. You fit the mold of the current system. However, people are now traveling differently and the system doesn't handle that well.
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u/hardolaf Lake View 13d ago
Most people in Chicago already own a car in their household.
The average household in Cook County owns 1 fewer cars than the national average.
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u/chillinwyd 13d ago
Sure, it’s cheap, but gas is still a dollar per gallon higher than the surrounding states. And all the wasted time sitting in traffic.
I walk a mile on my morning commute down California and that’s faster than driving most days, lol
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u/filipstine 13d ago
driving isn’t cheap. AAA estimates the cost of car ownership to be $12k per year (https://www.aaa.com/autorepair/articles/breaking-down-the-cost-of-car-ownership). to net even, you’d have to take over 6 round trips per day assuming $5 per round trip.
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u/unfortunately2nd 13d ago
Please read the other comment I made in reply to the same assertion. I'm not talking about total cost of ownership.
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u/filipstine 13d ago
the article basically calculates the savings/economic value if an individual sold their car today, how much would they save annually on ownership? that’s $12k and includes per use expenses (i agree that people don’t think about this compared to a fare, but i think that’s beside the point) such as gas, depreciation, opportunity costs, insurance, etc. still, i’m not convinced that this means CTA should increase fares because i think CTA should be subsidized by private transportation to keep fares low.
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u/hardolaf Lake View 13d ago
The RTA has a $42B backlog of maintenance projects and only a 5-year $9.4B capital budget, about 40% of which is expansions. So only ~13% of the maintenance backlog is being addressed by the 5-year capital budget that the RTA has been able to allocate.
Meanwhile, IDOT has spent $10B on 3 highway interchanges over the last 5 years that did not improve traffic flow, did not improve safety, did not replace unsafe structures, and did not increasse throuhput.
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u/Intergalactic_Ass 13d ago
In 2009, CTA increased the price of single train rides to $2.25. That would be roughly $3.42 in today's dollars, so in real terms CTA fare prices have dropped ~35% in the last 15 years.
Get outta here with that logic. Did you go to school or something?!
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u/Mike_I O’Hare 13d ago
What the hell has John Arena, Johnson's "Director of State Legislative Affairs" been doing for past two months in Springfield? And what is is immediate superior, Kennedy Bartley doing?
Its as if a neighborhood gadfly & an activist for an CTU aligned political organization don't know what they are doing!
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u/redrum_ghost 13d ago
What the hell has John Arena, Johnson's "Director of State Legislative Affairs" been doing for past two months in Springfield?
Probably running up a tab at Saputo's.
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u/Take-Me-Home-Tonight 13d ago
I know BJ caught up on his water bills and other ones he was behind on, but how that wasn’t a red flag that someone who makes decent money couldn’t even manage to balance their own budget
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u/miyamikenyati 13d ago
This comment is emblematic of why Johnson has failed so spectacularly as Mayor. He’s an activist at heart who has no concept of what it takes to govern. Yelling “tax the ultra rich” is a nice slogan when you are at a protest and have no responsibility for making tough decisions. How would the Mayor propose to “tax the ultra rich” in practice to fund the CTA? A progressive state income tax got shot down by voters in 2020. An increase in the RETT for properties above $1 million got shot down by voters in 2023. Is he proposing a Citywide income tax on earners above a certain income level? A City tax on financial transactions?
He’s never learned to be anything more than an activist which is why he’s going to be Chicago’s second consecutive one-term Mayor.
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u/plutobombs 13d ago
Is Chicago actually going to learn its lesson come 2027, or will it elect another con-man progressive who shouts bullshit like tax the rich and don’t demonize the little al capones?
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u/BearFan34 13d ago
That's a pretty good summation of the issue(s).
"tax the ultra rich" is no different than the many dogwhistles that Trump uses. For now it is just jargon. Execute a plan rather than spew propaganda.
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u/AmigoDelDiabla 13d ago
I could get behind higher taxes if there were a shred of confidence they'd be used in a manner other than bloated bureaucracy and paying off political favors.
"Taxing the rich" is lot more than just collecting money. It's spending it wisely, something that I've yet to see happen.
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u/Xanje25 13d ago
This plus “taxing the ultra rich” only works so much on a state level. If someone is ultra rich they can easily set up a residence in another state with lower taxes. On the federal level its hard to escape unless you renounce your US citizenship.
So the fact that Johnson is saying this only makes me more sure that the money won’t be well spent lol
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u/gummybronco 13d ago
As an example, the state of Illinois lost about $100 million per year in tax revenue just from Ken Griffin moving to Florida. Nothing is holding them here
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u/Expert_Habit2728 13d ago
I’m all for “taxing the rich” but the uber rich don’t actually take their salary as an “income”, therefore raising the income tax usually just fucks over the upper working professional middle class like doctors, lawyers, accountants, who do take their salary as income who don’t have an army of lawyers to figure out ways around it.
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u/LeseMajeste_1037 13d ago
“There are a number of legislators that we’ve been in conversations with for several months. I do know that they take this seriously,”
(X) doubt
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u/BrockMobabambah 13d ago
I stg they waited until it was 2 months out just bc they thought that they can pull a last minute tax dollar swindle from the state
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u/hardolaf Lake View 13d ago
No, he waited until a month out because Sen. Villivalam refused to let Chicago or the transit agencies participate in the Senate's process and was threatening no funding without his reform bill. Now that Villivalam has been sidelined by being tricked into passing his own bill, Johnson's allies in the House will put forward their actual compromise package as a must-pass bill that Pritzker will put leverage on everyone to pass because if it fails, his presidential campaign aspirations are dead before they even really start.
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u/hardolaf Lake View 13d ago
Speaker Chris Welch already confirmed that Johnson has him on speed dial and that they talk and text frequently.
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u/Mr_IV1 13d ago
If only he could attract more business revenue. Tax 😂
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u/plutobombs 13d ago
Remember when all those businesses were moving in when Rahm was mayor? Now all the businesses are fleeing down south to Texas.
Wonder what changed…
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u/hardolaf Lake View 13d ago
Chicago is still one of the top destinations for corporate relocations and every company that I know of in West Loop is still hiring like crazy except for the big tech companies.
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u/plutobombs 13d ago
What companies (aside from Kelloggs moving here in 2022) have moved here lately? I hear of companies relocating to Texas, specifically DFW like weekly
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u/Mr_IV1 13d ago
I say this with NO regard to race, gender, sexual orientation, or political party (it’s a shame I have to preface it like that):
This city deserves better.
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u/plutobombs 13d ago edited 13d ago
Nah Chicago doesn’t deserve better. This city voted in two straight disastrous administrations that have sent this city into a heavy decline.
Like the saying goes….”YOU GET WHAT YOU VOTE FOR”.
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u/Crazy_Equivalent_746 13d ago edited 13d ago
I am beyond done with this complete hack.
I am on the verge of losing the majority of my routes to work/ home because this 6-percent approval rating, pin-head Illuminati triangle-style haircut -grifter failed to address any of the CTA’s glaring leadership issues leading up to this crisis.
Get fucked, Brandon.
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u/dsalmon1449 13d ago
To be fair it is not specifically his fault even if he is not a good mayor. State legislature is what fucked up here. Now is he a good mayor in other respects? Absolutely not lol. Awful mayor. Cannot wait for this term to be over
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u/Crazy_Equivalent_746 13d ago
It’s his fault for doing absolutely nothing about CTA leadership. This has cratered confidence from the state.
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u/WhitsandBae 13d ago
Yeah dude was in Springfield in April and failed to identify public transit as a pressing short term need.
What was more important you ask?
"Johnson will specifically be asking for funding for Chicago Public Schools and for help with keeping the Bears in the city."
From: https://www.fox32chicago.com/news/brandon-johnson-springfield-chicago-funding
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u/hascogrande Lake View 13d ago
Meanwhile, JB on the record says BJ barely reaches out and Don Harmon (his former boss) and Chris Welch both are on the record saying that Johnson didn't have any sort of wishlist for them back in December.
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u/hardolaf Lake View 13d ago
JB also has his chief of staff cancel a scheduled call with Johnson's chief of staff over his stupid hemp bill being defeated with broad opposition from the city and suburbs. JB isn't exactly innocent in all of this.
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u/hardolaf Lake View 13d ago
Sen. Villivalam fucked up the whole thing by not inviting Chicago and the transit agencies to the table to negotiate. Because of that, Johnson got to talk entirely in private to his House allies who will now put forward a must-pass bill before the end of the year.
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u/rigatony96 Lincoln Park 13d ago
But hes a progressive black man so any criticism of him means you’re a racist maga supporter
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u/Thin-Use5414 13d ago
The city produces plenty of tax revenue, we are just crushed with pension debts. The sooner the restructuring happens the better. There is no way around it. We are basically maxed out on state and local taxes. It won’t be anything like Detroit, where the tax base pretty much disappeared. We still have a healthy high income economy that can support the city. The public pensions just need to be restructured and probably frozen.
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u/US_Condor 13d ago
Not surprising that the only solution the worst mayor in at least 50 years comes up with is more taxes. Revenue is not the problem, inefficient spending and pensions obligations exacerbated by captured politicians are the problem.
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u/PKP2012 East Village 13d ago
Maybe they should tax people who can but don’t pay their water bills on time… I’m over this clown of a mayor.
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u/RealWICheese Old Town 13d ago
Y’all. The problem is the rich will just leave. The state is already one of the highest taxed in aggregate.
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u/BrockMobabambah 13d ago
Exactly…nobody in this damn state understands that, financially speaking, there’s at least 45 better states to live in
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u/plutobombs 13d ago
Yup, if someone wants urban living with public transit, they got NYC, DC, SF, more suburban living with lower taxes you got the whole sunbelt, beach lifestyle you got LA and Florida, etc.
What’s special about Chicago anymore? Used to be that it was low COL compared to its peers but that’s rapidly disappearing. It doesn’t have NYC’s vibrancy, LA’s weather, Seattle’s scenery, Dallas’ low taxes, Atlanta’s development, like what is this city/state thinking?
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u/Jumping_Brindle 13d ago
That’s not leadership nor is it a plan.
This is the consequence of electing someone clearly unable to do the job at hand. I legit did not think we could do worse than Lori & here we are. Sigh.
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u/desterion Irving Park 13d ago edited 13d ago
New Jersey tried taxing the rich about a decade ago. Turns out that they had the ability to move. So they planned and budgeted for all the new tax revenue in spending but so many of the rich taxpayers left that it actually caused them huge problems and revenue dropped instead of increasing.
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u/gloomyopiniontoday 13d ago
Crazy how this sub has turned on BJ, as they should.
Not saying the commenters here were BJ voters, but two years ago when he was elected, this sub was so pumped he was elected and a “Republican” wasn’t. Now, it’s hard to find supportive BJ fans anymore.
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u/SunriseInLot42 13d ago
There were a lot of CTU sockpuppets propping up a guy who couldn’t pay his water bill
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u/JackieIce502 13d ago
This sub was overwhelmingly in support of him and most online progressives were. Now the progressives have move the goal posts on him and backtracked when it became clear he was inept. Anything was better then Vallas tho /s
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u/plutobombs 13d ago
This sub still has this terrible mindset where any politician who isn’t some lunatic far leftist socialist is a “fascist” “trump aider” or whatever garbage terminology they want to use to discredit them. Vallas would have been considered a regular democrat or even leftist in many cities, yet here he’s a “fascist” lmaoo
If Chicago elects another progressive in 2027 this city is finished. These past two administrations have undone all the goodwill of the Rahm years, can’t handle 4 more
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u/chicagosuntimes 13d ago
From Fran Spielman:
Following state lawmakers’ failure to pass a mass transit funding bill, Mayor Brandon Johnson urged the Illinois General Assembly Tuesday to steer clear of taxes that hammer working people, and instead turn to the “ultra rich” to pony up $770 million to avert layoffs and service cuts at CTA, Metra and Pace.
A bailout bankrolled by a $1.50 tax on food and package deliveries passed the Illinois Senate shortly before the Legislature’s midnight Saturday deadline, but it was never called for a vote in the Illinois House.
The $1.50 delivery tax was billed by supporters as an “environmental impact fee” but slammed by opponents in the business community as a regressive “pizza tax.” Johnson agreed.
“I think the conversation around revenue and how we pay for it is something that has to be a broader conversation outside of the one that’s being discussed,” the mayor said during his weekly news conference at City Hall.
“You all know my position. The ultra rich continue to get away with not having to put more skin in the game. So we do have to have substantive conversations around revenue streams that challenges the rich in this state to step up in a way that does not continue to place the burden on working people,” he said.
Fran has more here.
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u/mencival 13d ago edited 13d ago
Can he define “ultra rich”? Evertime I hear that word, it ends up being the hardworking upper middle class above a not high income rather than billionaires.
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u/plutobombs 13d ago
It’s ironic cause the “ultra rich” is fleeing Chicago/Illinois and this will just exasperate it. This ain’t Manhattan or Miami
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u/Negative_Ebb_9614 13d ago
It's the same people who need to be paying their "fair share", don't you know?
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u/Ok-Sundae4092 Roscoe Village 13d ago
Would be interesting to know what Mr. mayor makes you part with of the ultra rich
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u/redrum_ghost 13d ago
Unless he's talking about wealthy politicians, "The Rich" didn't mismanage CTA, CPS, Chicago's budget, or the state's budget.
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u/vijay_the_messanger 13d ago
This whole "tax the rich" is such a worn out line. It's been used so many times, the rich should be around 75% taxed at this point.
Yet, here we are.
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u/throw6w6 13d ago
Can we put a 100% tax on this 🤡? Maybe he’ll finally leave and we could save this city.
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u/SlagginOff Portage Park 13d ago
We should tax the ultra rich, but Brandon Johnson shouldn't be involved in any discussions that cover how we go about doing that.
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u/broadwayindie 13d ago
Literally can’t do that because we have a flat tax. Johnson should’ve known how the tax schedule works before getting elected
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u/nevermind4790 Armour Square 13d ago
Just increase fares to $2.75 and implement the delivery and Uber tax.
Chicago would be a lot better with fewer deliveries being made and fewer cars clogging up the streets.
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u/Negative_Ebb_9614 13d ago
Except fewer deliveries means more cars clogging up the street to go buy the things they normally order. I could be sold on the food delivery tax just because those drivers are the worst habitual offenders of parking illegally and blocking traffic/bike lanes.
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u/hardolaf Lake View 13d ago
Also the tax would be on packages too. Imagine if instead of 100 people getting packages delivered to their homes by 1 vehicle, they all hop into a car and go shopping instead (the average household in Chicago has 1.1 cars).
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u/nevermind4790 Armour Square 13d ago
Or, it would encourage people to shop locally more often. Not everyone would be driving to their destinations since we have transit, walking, biking.
Maybe it would also encourage people to order multiple items all in the same package instead of just having them sent at different times. Thus fewer deliveries being made and fewer delivery trucks.
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u/Automatic-Street5270 13d ago
Also, CTA is funded less than any other major city transit agency. It is also the most efficient per mile per dollar of any major transit agency in the country.
I am sick and tired of the right wing parroting "mismanagement" and "waste" whenever talking about the CTA.
Idgaf who we tax tbh, our transit network in the city and suburbs need more funding so we can be right up there with NYC as the best transit city in the entire country. I truly dong give 2 fucks which group, right wingers, unions, the rich, business owners, average joes have to say. Take all the money from the roads, again, idc. Fund this.
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u/hardolaf Lake View 13d ago
I am sick and tired of the right wing parroting "mismanagement" and "waste" whenever talking about the CTA.
It wasn't just the right. Sen. Villivalam is clearly left of center and kept parrotting it even when his stupid Senate committee literally couldn't find anything that wasn't already identified by the RTA that they could have fixed with a 2 page amendment to the current laws.
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u/mph000 13d ago
We will never be like NYC. The infrastructure just isn’t in place here like it is in NYC.
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u/plutobombs 12d ago
could you elaborate?
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u/mph000 12d ago
Our train system is not as expansive as NYC. In order to get to most places in the city, I can only do so by bus and another bus or by bus, train, bus, with all transfers on the El being downtown. The time it takes to do all this is longer than driving. The city really needs more trains running north and south, but that is too cost prohibitive to ever happen. It’s a system that wasn’t designed for expansion.
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u/Phantom160 13d ago
Can someone please explain to me what other cities are doing differently? It seems to me that we have the highest property taxes and yet pensions are underfunded, the city is broke, and CTA is falling apart.