On Wednesday, August 27, the Illinois Clean Jobs Coalition (ICJC) and Labor Alliance for Public Transportation (LAPT) sent the following joint letter to lawmakers in the General Assembly urging them to pass legislation that funds and reforms public transit in the October veto session.
August 27, 2025
Dear General Assembly Member,
As leaders of labor unions, environmental organizations, transportation organizations, and community-based groups across Illinois, we are calling on the legislature to fully fix and fund transit in the October veto session. While recent actions by the RTA may impact the timing of the fiscal cliff by a few weeks, the bottom line remains: transit cannot wait.
Public transit is an economic engine for Illinois, providing essential jobs and transporting millions to work, school, and healthcare. In Northeastern Illinois, the transit agencies provide nearly 35 million rides per month – over 1 million rides per day. Across the rest of Illinois, 54 public transportation agencies – 42 rural and 12 urban – provide critical mobility access to 95 downstate counties, providing approximately 30 million passenger trips annually.
Robust, well-connected, and appropriately funded transit allows seniors to age in place, teenagers to get around on their own, and mobility for people with disabilities, supporting access to jobs and services. Despite transit’s vital importance, riders currently face a fragmented transit network—schedules and fares are inconsistent, full accessibility remains out of reach, and service often falls short of meeting the community’s needs and expectations. In addition, safety remains a top concern of workers and riders alike.
These challenges are why we worked so hard with stakeholders from across Illinois to create a responsible reform and revenue package to address the transit fiscal cliff. This landmark legislation represents a significant step forward for transit in northern Illinois and across the state, and it’s imperative that the legislature pass the bill this year.
A comprehensive resolution with $1.5 billion in new funding is necessary in 2025 to:
- Prevent catastrophic cuts. With a 40% reduction in service, nearly 3,000 transit workers will lose their jobs, leaving Chicago with a transit network smaller than Madison, Wisconsin. Without reliable, frequent access to transit, people across Illinois – from workers, to businesses, to students, to people with disabilities – will be harmed. Cuts would affect millions who never even step foot on a bus or train, through increased traffic congestion, inability to fill jobs, and worse air quality. These cuts would lead to an astonishing $2.6 billion annual loss to the regional economy.
- Provide adequate time for new revenue to be set up and get flowing. If we don’t create the revenue streams now there will not be enough revenue generated to avert the job losses and service cuts.
- Instill confidence in the system. The extreme fiscal uncertainty hurts ridership, hiring, and employee morale – all of which are critical for a successful transit system.
- Make key improvements to the system including dedicated safety personnel, streamlined reduced fare programs, and faster, more reliable service.
- Avoid further harms from transportation. Public transit delivers environmental benefits such as improved air quality and the associated risk reduction in respiratory and cardiovascular health issues. Reducing car trips also reduces congestion and reduces greenhouse gas emissions, which is good for our climate, economy, and our communities.
Illinois is not alone in facing a transit crisis, but we stand out as the only state to put forth a comprehensive solution. Other states have done one-time funding fixes that did not solve the operations funding issue, and have in fact heightened their crises. For example, the transit system in Philadelphia will go over their fiscal cliff this month because their state did not take decisive action, and as a result will be instituting a devastating 45% reduction in transit service and increasing fares by 21.5%.
The transit fiscal cliff has been a long time in the making. Illinois has underfunded public transit for decades, investing significantly less than peer states and regions in sustainable, modern systems.
This is not a kick the can down the road moment. A temporary fix is not enough. We cannot ‘let transit go over the cliff’ and see what happens. Just filling the budget gap doesn’t solve our myriad transit problems.
On behalf of millions of Illinoisans, we urge lawmakers in the General Assembly to pass comprehensive governance reform and identify $1.5 billion in new annual operating revenue to fix and fund the system now. We are eager to work with you to get it across the finish line this year.
Sincerely,
350 Chicago
A Just Harvest
Abundant Housing Illinois
Access Living
Active Transportation Alliance
American Train Dispatchers Association
ATU Local 2018
ATU Local 241
ATU Local 308
Better Streets Chicago
Boilermakers Local 1
Bronzeville Community Development Partnership / Jitney EV
Bricklayers ADC 1
Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers
Brotherhood of Maintenance and Way Workers – IBT
Brotherhood of Railway Signalmen
Center for Neighborhood Technology
Chicago Federation of Labor
Chicago Food Policy Action Council
Clean Power Lake County
Climate Reality Chicago
Coalition for a Better Chinese American Community
Coalition for a Modern Metra Electric
DuPage Federation
Edgewater Environmental Coalition
Elevated Chicago
Emerald South Economic Development Collaborative
Environmental Law & Policy Center
Faith in Place
Foundation for Homan Square
Garfield Park Community Council
Greater Englewood Chamber of Commerce
GreenLatinos
IBEW Local 134
IBEW Local 9
International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM)
IAM District 19
IAM District 8
IAM Local 126
IAM Local 701
Illinois AFL-CIO
Illinois Clean Jobs Coalition
Illinois Environmental Council
Illinois Public Health Institute
IUOE Local 150
IUOE Local 399
Jobs to Move America
Labor Alliance for Public Transportation
LIUNA Chicago
Little Village Environmental Justice Organization
Metropolitan Planning Council
Mid-America Carpenters Regional Council
North Lawndale Community Coordinating Council
National Conference Fireman Oilers, SEIU
Natural Resources Defense Council
Painters DC 14
Pipefitters Local 597 UA
Plumbers Local 130 UA
Respiratory Health Association
SEIU Local 73
Sierra Club Illinois
SMART – Mechanical Division
SMART – Transportation Division
SMART Local 73
Teamsters Joint Council 25
Teamsters Local 700
Teamsters Local 727
The Nature Conservancy, Illinois
Third Act Illinois
Unitarian Universalist Advocacy Network of Illinois
Urban Gateways
WindSolarUSA, Inc.
