Forest Park officials are networking with Illinois legislators to bring more funding and safety to Forest Park’s public transit, as well as more resources for the village’s first responders.
The last week of April, Mayor Rory Hoskins, Village Administrator Rachell Entler, and Commissioners Michelle Melin-Rogovin and Jessica Voogd traveled to Springfield, Illinois to attend the Illinois Municipal League’s annual Lobby Day. Every year, local leaders across the state meet with lawmakers to discuss priorities for their municipalities, so that government officials can weigh in on their behalf during legislative sessions.
This year was the first time Hoskins attended when only 59 senators were in session, and none of the 118 state representatives. But Forest Park officials got face time with Illinois Senate President Don Harmon, who lives in Oak Park, to voice their requests.
“We were focused on making sure that he understood where we were with our interests in transit reorganization,” Hoskins said. “We were out there putting transit and transit safety front and center.”
Forest Park’s priorities are likely to be addressed starting June 1, when the North Illinois Transit Authority Act goes into effect. In December, Gov. JB Pritzker signed the act into law, creating a new authority to oversee the CTA, Metra and Pace, standardizing fares and services across the three transit entities, and funneling $1.5 billion a year into state transit services and infrastructure without raising state taxes. NITA aims to improve coordination between Metra and Pace to provide more frequent and reliable service, plus improve public safety by allowing the Cook County Sheriff to organize a task force with a long-term plan to address violent crime on public transit.
NITA has several bills nested within it, one of which Senator Kimberly Lightford filed that would appropriate $250,000 for an ambulance and emergency medical services personnel at the Forest Park Blue Line terminus.
NITA provisions will also reimburse Forest Park for costs associated with emergency response services at the CTA Blue Line station at 711 Des Plaines Ave.
“I think for the first time, I was able to say face-to-face, ‘Mr. President, a full 20% of our calls are to 711 Des Plaines, so the provision [in NITA] that will require CTA to reimburse the village is really important to us,’” Hoskins said of Forest Park officials’ conversation with Harmon.
Hoskins previously told the Review that the Forest Park Fire Department spends nearly $1 million a year responding to 711 Des Plaines Ave. In January, the village will report its 2026 emergency response costs for the Blue Line terminus and will be reimbursed by February.
“It was a privilege to travel to Springfield with the Mayor, Commissioner Voogd, and Administrator Entler to support our outstanding fire and EMS staff and reinforce to our state legislators that we, as a community, are shouldering the burden of the Chicago transit system,” Melin-Rogovin told the Review.
Though Hoskins said he and other local officials are still learning about NITA, the Forest Park Fire Department is meeting with fire departments in Oak Park, River Forest and Rosemont — which are also expected to be reimbursed by NITA — and working with an ambulance billing company to adopt a uniform billing metric across all four municipalities. Hypothetically, each village could adopt an ordinance and sign an agreement with CTA that would reimburse them for emergency response funds to CTA property.
“I don’t know how it will actually be implemented. That’s why we wanted to learn more about how NITA is being formed and what’s happening right now,” Hoskins said.
While in Springfield, Hoskins also spoke with Amalgamated Transit Union Local 241, which represents train drivers and was having a state conference at the same hotel Forest Park officials were staying at. Hoskins said ATU Local 241 was at the table with Forest Park when Toni Preckwinkle, Cook County board president, first engaged them about local transit changes last year.
“Safety for the drivers and safety for the riders kind of coincides,” Hoskins said.
The NITA reorganization states that the Cook County Sheriff’s Office will coordinate a new safety plan for the CTA — all the more important after the CTA abruptly terminated its contract last month with Monterrey Security, which supplied 250 full-time, unarmed guards to survey CTA property.
“The idea is to have more Chicago police on the trains,” Hoskins said of the beginning of a new safety plan. “ATU suggested that they open up the opportunity to suburban law enforcement as well as CPD, so there would be more sworn officers on the trains, but at the expense of the CTA.”
Hoskins told Preckwinkle’s team in Springfield that Forest Park would want to be included in a public safety task force.
“We also continue to lobby for improving safety and services provided by the CTA and Northern Illinois Transit Authority, which will help reduce the call volume and intense demand on first responders,” Voogd told the Review.
Other lobbying requests
Voogd said another long-time ask from Forest Park officials is reinstating the Local Government Distributive Fund to 10%. In 2011, the amount of local income tax collections that municipalities received was reduced from 10% to 6% — a crucial 4% difference for small, non-home rule municipalities like Forest Park, Voogd said.
Though Pritzker wants to keep the fund flat for the upcoming fiscal year, “Many representatives we heard from in Springfield said they oppose this, promising to keep the current rate intact,” Voogd said. “I believe this is a direct result of the work of local elected officials, representatives and advocates like the IML, who continue to show up in Springfield every year.”
Melin-Rogovin said local officials look to increase the Local Government Distributive Fund every time they visit Springfield. This year, proposed legislation would fully finance the fund, which Melin-Rogovin said would be incredibly helpful for Forest Park to see up to a 3% increase in local revenues.
“There’s more horse-trading to be done in the next two weeks in Springfield, and I doubt we’ll see the full amount, but it’s not going down,” Melin-Rogovin said. “As property tax legislation and calculations are changing for various reasons at the state and county level, and the state identifies policies without funding sources for local municipalities, this is an area we work to increase.”
Also at this year’s IML Lobby Day, Senators spoke to all Illinois municipalities opposing Pritzker’s Building Up Illinois Developments housing plan, which would supersede local zoning to allow multi-unit housing on most residential lots, legalize accessory dwelling units, and accelerate permit reviews and inspections for housing.
The Illinois Municipal League is against Pritzker’s BUILD plan, saying that it undermines local governments and is a one-size-fits-all approach. The first week of May, the group helped file legislation with provisions to BUILD that include an incentive fund for multi-unit dwellings, limit up-front rental costs and cap realtor’s commissions at 3% of a unit’s sale price.
“The governor’s BUILD proposal is going to take up the rest of the session, along with NITA and getting the budget passed,” Melin-Rogovin said of the Senate session that runs through May 31. “The veto session is going to be interesting.”