Article Summary
- A new state transit law redirects revenue from the state’s motor fuel tax and interest from the Road Fund – funding historically used to fix roads – to public transportation.
- The money aims to stabilize Chicagoland public transit as pandemic-era funding runs dry.
- Republican and downstate legislators argue the shift will hurt efforts to improve Illinois’ roads.
- The bill allows Chicago transit to avoid fare hikes this year, but critics argue the bill permits transit agencies to avoid necessary reforms and efficiencies.
This summary was written by the reporters and editors who worked on this story.
SPRINGFIELD — In Dallas City, a small town in western Illinois along the Mississippi River, Mayor Kevin Six says residents have grown frustrated wondering whether the state will ever finish paving Illinois Highway 96.
“They just paved six miles between our town and the next, but we’ve been waiting four, five years for more of it to be repaved,” Six said. “They’re just dragging their feet.”
The Illinois Department of Transportation included $7 million for six miles of resurfacing and culvert work on Illinois 96 in its October multi-year plan. The years of the project are listed for 2027-2031.
Six said his frustrations only intensified following the veto session of the General Assembly last fall and passage of a transit bill that diverted funds traditionally used for road construction throughout the state and put them toward public transportation, mostly in the Chicago area.
Downstate officials have aired frustration in the aftermath of the transit overhaul – though the Illinois Department of Transportation maintains that its multi-year plan unveiled prior to the new law’s passage will not be reduced or altered because of it.
Read more: Lawmakers approve $1.5B transit funding package without statewide tax increases
Senate Bill 2111, which passed in the final hours of the last day of the session, included $1.5 billion in transit funding. That includes redirecting a projected $860 million in sales tax revenue charged on motor fuels from the Illinois Road Fund to public transportation operations. The bill, which will take effect in June, distributes 85% of the diverted funds to Chicago-area transit and 15% to downstate transit agencies.
The Road Fund is a primary statewide account used to pay for or finance road projects through the Illinois Department of Transportation. Many road projects are paid for with construction bonds, and the state’s motor fuel tax increases with inflation each year to raise revenue to pay for them.
The Road Fund is fed into by the state’s motor fuel tax, which is separate from the sales tax charged on motor fuel taxes. Before 2019’s Rebuild Illinois capital infrastructure plan, the sales tax on motor fuel was going to the state’s main General Revenue Fund, rather than to the Road Fund.
Rebuild, which was the first comprehensive, multi-year capital plan since 2009, created an incremental shift of that money to the Road Fund, which the new law will alter. Pritzker received bipartisan support for the plan, in large part because it shifted the sales tax money on motor fuel purchases to the Road Fund.
The new law also allows another estimated $200 million from interest growing in the state’s Road Fund to be allocated for mass transit.
That money will patch public transportation budget holes in the northern part of the state caused in large part by pandemic-era federal aid running dry.
Pritzker signed SB 2111 on Dec. 16. The plan does not include any statewide tax increases but raises a sales tax in the Chicago area.
Existing road infrastructure plans
The governor defended the redistribution of transportation funding shortly after his signing of SB 2111.
“We have put more money into downstate roads than we have into the Chicago area roads, much more than historically. That’s just been the way it is since we passed Rebuild Illinois,” Pritzker said during an announcement. “We definitely are looking at ways that we can turn the dials and make it better for downstate, but I think we’ve done a lot already.”
Read more: Here’s what’s in Illinois’ $50.6B six-year infrastructure plan
The state’s latest $50.6 billion infrastructure plan expands on the 2019 Rebuild Illinois capital program.
For FY 2026 to 2031, Rebuild Illinois allocates $11.4 billion to projects specific to downstate IDOT Districts 4-9. Projects for districts 1-3 are slated to receive $12.3 billion for the same time, according to IDOT. Region 1 includes the state’s six most populous counties that make up two-thirds of the state’s population: Cook, DuPage, Lake, Will, Kane and McHenry. Districts 2 and 3 include 19 counties ranging from the state’s northwest corner south to Ford and Iroquois County.
Responding to concerns about how downstate road projects will be affected, a spokesperson for the Illinois Department of Transportation said, “No changes or reductions to the program are planned.”
“The department remains committed and has the resources to deliver all of the projects captured in the latest multiyear construction program released last fall, covering fiscal years 2026 through 2031,” spokesperson Maria Castaneda said in an email.
The new law doesn’t explicitly divert funding from projects earmarked for central or southern Illinois. Rather, it pulls from the statewide funding pool that backs IDOT’s multi-year plan and directs the money to the 85-15 transit split on an ongoing basis.
Sen. Ram Villivalam, D-Chicago, a main proponent of SB 2111, argued the bill provides sufficient funding for downstate, pointing to the 15% of redirected funds, or $129 million, for transit outside the Chicago area. But Six and several Republican legislators, including Sen. Sue Rezin, R-Morris, said Springfield has continuously sidestepped downstate road infrastructure in favor of Chicago.
“That’s peanuts compared to what they took from us and gave to Chicago,” Rezin said. “And what really makes me frustrated is, the people still in my district, when they go to gas up in my district, think that that money is going to repair their roads and bridges.’’
While a 2016 constitutional amendment approved by voters explicitly allows Road Fund money to be used for public transit and several other modes of transportation, Sen. Dave Syverson, R-Cherry Valley, characterized the diversion of funds as a “legal loophole.” The amendment limits money raised from transportation-related activities, like the motor fuel tax, to being spent only for transportation-related purposes.
“When we talk to the public, and we sit down and talk to a group of people and have to say, ‘They’re taking $800 million of major roads and bridges that are supposed to get done out here in central and northern Illinois, that was taken and shifted over to Chicago, so your project’s now being pushed back a year or two or three, then they get angry,’” Syverson said.
Villivalam pointed out the expenditure on transit is explicitly allowed in the text of the constitution.
Impact on trucking
Industry groups have traditionally opposed any diversion of money from the Road Fund. Illinois Trucking Association Executive Director Matthew Hart said poor road quality leads to increased congestion during emergency repairs and hazards for commercial drivers.
“Every time there is an IDOT crew or maintenance crew out there, they’re closing down lanes and closing down capacity, then you restrict the flow of goods,” he said. “So that’s why it’s imperative that we keep the roads in good shape, so that we’re spending less time filling potholes.”
Hart said poor road quality can lead to increased costs for truckers. “If you operate trucks on bad roads, you’re going to spend more time repairing your vehicles,’’ he said.
Joseph Schwieterman, director of the Chaddick Institute for Metropolitan Development at DePaul University, warned that downstate districts face increasing challenges financing their roads. Declining populations diminish the tax base, he said, and have reduced county spending on roads.
Still, he warned, “we can’t fall back on our bad past habits of letting the road system deteriorate.”
In Rezin’s district, she said Interstate 80 and Illinois Highway 47 are in need of repair.
“There’s tremendous impact everywhere as a result of where we’re located,” Rezin said of her district that includes some parts of the far southwest suburbs. “My district will see directly less money coming in. There will be less projects that will be completed because of this massive diversion of road funds to pay for the CTA, which did not raise rates or fees.”
Syverson said he hopes legislators will adjust to improve funding for downstate road projects.
The fare box recovery ratio — the percentage of a transit system’s revenue that comes from rider fares — has also decreased. The requirement will be waived in 2026 and dropped from the current 50% to 25% in 2027 and 20% by 2030.
Ajay Gupta, a Republican candidate for state representative in Naperville, said he views this change as a “recipe for disaster’’ because he believes it allows transit systems to put off changes that improve cost efficiency or =increase fares.
“There’s no incentive to improve efficiency, which is absolutely the wrong way to do this,” Gupta said.
The new transit law creates a more powerful governing body for the Chicago region agencies, the Northern Illinois Transit Authority, beginning September 2026. It will be able to establish a universal fare system and coordinate schedules between the three regional agencies.
Read: No fare hikes or service cuts for Chicago transit agencies, RTA chair says
Rezin is hoping the uproar over road funding will create unity among downstate politicians as they seek legislative solutions. “Downstate needs to be made whole,” Rezin said. “We need to be made whole because we have crumbling roads and bridges.”
Jacques Abou-Rizk and Amy L. Wong are graduate students in journalism with Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications, and fellows in its Medill Illinois News Bureau working in partnership with Capitol News Illinois.
Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.
