It’s been less than two weeks since CTA service cuts hit Chicago, and the specter of a new doomsday is looming again — perhaps as soon as this May.
That’s because the state still owes the Regional Transportation Authority $250 million, and the clock is ticking for the RTA to dole that necessary operating cash out to its subsidiaries CTA, Metra and Pace.
The only thing that’s keeping the RTA from cutting funding to the transit agencies is a rainy-day fund of borrowed cash it’s been relying on since July. However, that fund has dwindled to about $90 million — only enough to maintain current service levels through May, officials said at an RTA board meeting this morning.
If the state hasn’t ponied up by then, the RTA may be forced to ask CTA, Metra and Pace to cut their budgets — either by cutting service, or by shifting dollars targeted for badly needed systemwide improvements to pay for day-to-day costs.
The RTA thinks the state will pay eventually, and they’ve gotten Gov. Pat Quinn’s attention, said RTA Executive Director Stephen Schlickman. The $250 million question is simple when the money will come, and if it will come in time to spare the system from more cuts.
“We don’t see the state not paying us, we just see them having a delay in paying us,” said the RTA’s chief financial officer, Joe Costello. “We’re not looking for a bailout, we’re just looking for a tool to get us through this time period until the state gets its finances in order and provides us the finances that they owe us.”
One such tool could be an increase in the RTA’s ability to use borrowed money, or working cash, to pay for CTA, Metra and Pace’s day-to-day operations. The RTA is lobbying to have its borrowing authority brought back up to $400 million — a privilege they briefly had until July 2009, when it was reduced to its original level of $100 million.
A short-term solution could be to re-increase the RTA’s rolling cash authority back to $400 million, allowing the RTA to “roll over” the borrowed money, as opposed to simply paying it when it's due.
Windy Citizen 