Welcome to Chicago 312: 3 Headlines. 1 Big Question. 2 Red Flags. Every Wednesday. Subscribe here.

What To Know This Week: State budget, Pride Month, fighting back against ICE. I will also do my absolute best to break down what’s going on with the CTA but I make NO promises. Genuinely, please reply or respond in the comments with your analysis.

3 Headlines: CTA Struggle, State Budget, Fighting Back Against ICE

1.  The CTA Is Headed Off a Cliff, and Springfield Just Shrugged

On Saturday, Illinois lawmakers passed a $55 billion state budget — and left 1.6 million daily transit riders twisting in the wind.

Despite years of warnings, organized advocacy, and a looming fiscal cliff, Springfield adjourned without passing a deal to close the $771 million budget hole facing CTA, Metra, and Pace in 2026. COVID relief funds are drying up. Service cuts of up to 40% are on the table. Half the L lines could disappear. Nearly 60% of CTA bus routes could be cut. It’s a doomsday scenario, and we’re watching it unfold in slow motion.

So, uh… what happened?

Who’s In Charge?

Some background from Streetsblog: Right now, Chicagoland transit is run by four agencies — CTA, Metra, Pace, and the RTA — each with their own board, budget, and political turf to defend. It’s a bureaucratic group project where no one agrees on the assignment, everyone hates each other, and the teacher left the room in 1987. Like many things in Chicago, Illinois, and government around the world.

It’s also why:

• You can’t transfer easily between CTA, Metra, and Pace.

• Capital projects compete instead of connect.

• And no one’s quite sure who to hold accountable when everything breaks.

  The RTA technically oversees everything, but its supermajority rule makes it useless in practice. Every agency answers to a different board. No one shares power, no one shares priorities, and no one shares blame.

“No Funding Without Reform” — But No Reform, Either

Springfield lawmakers — including Kam Buckner and Ram Villivalam — were saying “No funding without reform.” They want a new board structure, less mayoral control, and an actual functional governance system that serves riders, not power blocs.

And State Senator Ram Villivalam introduced a last-minute bill that included both reforms and new revenue: a $1.50 tax on delivery apps, toll surcharges, fare integration, even a shiny new name for the RTA (the Northern Illinois Transit Authority).

The Senate passed it. The House… didn’t. Business groups hated the taxes. Suburban reps hated the optics of “bailing out Chicago.” North Side Ald. Andre Vasquez called out Johnson’s soft handling of the CTA crisis.

Meanwhile, Governor Pritzker acted like the whole mess wasn’t his problem, even taking a shot at the RTA for spending $750,000 on an ad campaign.

What Comes Next?

A special session might be called this summer. Or they might wait until fall. Or 2026. Who knows! The only certainty is that without action soon, cuts become not just likely — but irreversible.

We are in the planning-for-cuts stage. The agencies have already started modeling worst-case scenarios, updating maps, and scheduling layoffs.

What’s happening to transit is what’s happened to every public good in this city: disinvestment, privatization, blame-shifting, and managed decline.

2. Illinois Just Protected Mifepristone — and the GOP Is Screaming About Foreign Influence

I’m mostly cribbing from Capitol Fax here, who covered this in brief (and whose joke I ripped off in the headline) but it’s an interesting win I’ll be following.

HB3637 just passed both chambers in Springfield. It’s a quiet but powerful bill: if the FDA pulls approval for a drug — say, mifepristone — Illinois will still allow its use, so long as the WHO recommends it and the original labeling was accurate.

Translation: if the federal government caves to anti-abortion zealots, Illinois says screw it — we’ll follow the science.

The bill dares to say that international medical consensus might still matter even if RFK Jr. and the Supreme Court decide it doesn’t.

Why It Matters: Again, as Capitol Fax pointed out — Texas is also taking its cues from foreign health bodies — but in the dumbest way possible.

Senate Bill 25, backed by RFK Jr. and the “Make America Healthy Again” cult, would slap warning labels on Skittles, Mountain Dew, and a bunch of other food items using ingredients banned in other countries.

When it comes to banning candy and Mountain Dew, the right LOVES European regulation. But if the WHO recommends mifepristone? Suddenly George Soros must be trying to sterilize cows in Peoria.

The Right doesn’t actually care about “foreign influence” — they just don’t like when international science backs bodily autonomy. They’ll cite the EU if it gets Red #3 off a Sour Patch Kid, but scream globalist conspiracy if it protects abortion rights.

3. Fighting Back Against ICE In Little Village

EDITED TO ADD, As of 1:24 PM, June 4th:

From OCAD:

 Chicago is one of many places fighting back against the appalling ICE spectacles happening across the country (San Diego comes to mind).

As Borderless Magazine reports, federal agents have been detaining immigrants immediately after court hearing. It’s left Little Village a ghost town. But on Tuesday, when ICE came back — activists chased them out. Block Club reports: Organizers asked agents for more information about the arrests and whether a valid warrant had been presented. Officials did not respond to questions and told them to contact the agency’s media team. No warrant was provided.

Why It Matters: With so many direct attacks on due process and community safety, it’s good to see what work. As ICE is attempting to turn courthouses into traps, and neighborhoods into open-air surveillance zones, follow Little Village Local or ICIRR for more updates. The fact that this didn’t work in Little Village is a rare win — but it’s a fragile one.

1 Question: H,Why Are You Still Talking About Progressive Revenue on X?

This week I’ve been really focused on random fights about progressive revenue with people on X. I’m sure this is both productive and promotes mental wellness.

I cannot tell you how ill-equipped I am to talk about finance and taxes — but then the people who LOVE talking about these issues spout technocratic, hand-wringing austerity bullshit that makes NO sense and basically amounts to “gee whiz it sure sucks that the only way to fix anything in this city is to complete gutting every public good or pander to random billionaires who will do whatever they want anyway.”

Chicago’s budget is not good, and it is the result of clear and obvious buck passing from politicians (not to mention overt developer deal cutting) that got us here. Cool, we can all agree on this, and people love to shout this at me on X. But then — how do we solve this, and who should be prioritized as we solve this? Shockingly, the answers here are far less consensus based and usually when the technocrats disappear and the creeps who look up my deadname show up to shout about how the real problem is “bad teachers who get paid too much.'“ Anyway!

There is a real revenue problem in Chicago. Something about the grocery tax here

All because the ‘far’ Chicago Left is made up of humanities nerds who panic and devolve into math trauma panic because they used more than one percentage point (sorry, maybe I’m projecting with that one) . I don’t know TIFs either you all. What ever happened to Tom Tressler, anyway?

TLDR — it’s crazy to call TIFs “extra money” for schools when it’s literally tax money diverted from public goods.

Here are a number of better life choices than the ones I’m making:

Attend a Budget Open House that the Mayor’s office is holding.

Or watch what Heather Cherone at WTTW shared, a better breakdown of TIFs.

Or even read this fairly lengthy breakdown of progressive revenue options from ACRE.

What kinds of toxic coping strategies are you using these days?

2 Red Flags: Pride Month Sucks and So Do Medicaid Cuts

1. Jonathan Joss Was Murdered.

Jonathan Joss — the voice of King of the Hill’s John Redcorn — was shot and killed June 1st in Texas, the literal first day of Pride Month. His husband, Tristan Kern de Gonzales, says their neighbor had harassed them for years over their relationship, and that the killing was a hate crime. The San Antonio police say they’re “still investigating” and “don’t have evidence of that.” You’d think that the murder of a prominent Native actor — over a queer relationship — on June 1st — might warrant something more than a shrug and “no hate crime charges at this time.” There are also reports that Joss’ partner is trans, which, as this person wrote, “explains a lot” in terms of the eternal tabloid right wing flywheel response.

People who are smarter than me have written about the weird jarring ways that Pride Month already shows the total corporate backflip from pinkwashing to total silence on LGBTQIA ‘representation.” Rainbow drones were not good for the world or LGBTQIA people writ large, but caving so quickly is not a good sign. The right wing flywheel is is getting more violent every day when it comes to trans people (native people, undocumented people, any of their usual suspects.

Ok. Here is an article about supporters showing up en mass for a Drag Storytime in Beverly.

2. Republican Medicaid Reform: Paperwork Kills

This TikTok is the best breakdown I’ve seen of ‘Medicaid reform’ from Republicans and the way it helps them boot as many people as they can from the program. It’s also worthing knowing about the protests, reminiscent of ADAPT, that disability rights activists carried out this week in DC. Paperwork as policy is how austerity fights win under the radar — not by banning programs, but by drowning people in forms until they give up.

That’s It This Week.

💬 Have you read the Q+A with Nick Uniejewski? He’s running for state senate after holding 100+ kitchen table conversations on housing, transit, and democracy. Check it out.

🌟 We’re not funded. Chicago 312 is powered by the people who read this, forward it, complain about it, and tell me when the Instagram posts are just too half assed to make a difference. If you like it, dislike it, want something else - hit reply.

💌 Shameless Self Promotion. I’m in a show, part of a New Works Festival from Genderfucked Productions (a trans theater company) this Friday at 8. The lineup includes haunted mushrooms, karaoke cabals, drag musicals, ghost girls, and lots and lots of sci fi. Check it out here.

_{All typos are intentional 4D chess.}

PS — Did I say Happy Pride already? Well, Happy Pride. Here’s Margaret Killjoy talking about the Saw Guerra “revolution is not for the sane’ scene in Andor which I’m counting as Pride related so I can share it here.