COVID-19 & Transportation Funding in Illinois One Year Later
This report examines the impact of COVID-19 on Illinois (IL) traffic volumes and transportation funding. The State of Illinois issued a stay-at-home order on March 21, 2020. The resulting reduced travel led to a decrease in transportation revenue. The motor fuel tax (MFT) was expected to generate $2.39 billion for Illinois state government, local government, and transit agencies. Due to COVID-19, MFT revenue from April 2020-February 2021 totaled $2.08 billion, a loss of $308 million expected for road, bridge, and transit infrastructure funding. A breakdown of lost MFT revenue by state fund shows that the state lost $101 million for the State Construction Account and the three major Chicago transit agencies lost $27 million. In addition, transit system farebox revenues fell from a total of $987 million in 2019 to an estimated $353 million in 2020, a 64% decrease. Additional trends explored in this report, comparing 2019 data to 2020 data, include vehicle miles traveled per month; Chicago transit ridership by week; sales tax collected by the Regional Transportation Authority (RTA) by month; and percent of people working from home who previously worked at employment site.
- Record URL:
-
-
Corporate Authors:
Illinois Economic Policy Institute
La Grange, IL United States -
Authors:
- Tyler, Mary
- Publication Date: 2021-3-25
Language
- English
Media Info
- Media Type: Digital/other
- Features: Appendices; Figures; References; Tables;
- Pagination: 16p
Subject/Index Terms
- TRT Terms: COVID-19; Fares; Financing; Fuel taxes; Public transit; Revenues; Ridership; Telecommuting; Traffic volume; Trend (Statistics); Vehicle miles of travel
- Geographic Terms: Illinois
- Subject Areas: Finance; Highways; Public Transportation; Security and Emergencies;
Filing Info
- Accession Number: 01768897
- Record Type: Publication
- Files: TRIS
- Created Date: Mar 31 2021 5:52PM