DuPage leaders say late-session transit bill nearly stripped county quarter-cent sales tax

DuPage County legislative committee members were told June 10 that a late, last-minute amendment to a Senate transit bill briefly included elimination of the county's quarter-cent Regional Transportation Authority (RTA) sales tax before lobbyists and county allies secured its removal.

The change, which Chip Humes identified as a "poison pill in there for us, which was the elimination of our quarter cent RTA sales tax," was removed from the measure before the Senate vote. Humes, the county's state lobbyist, said the county then worked with Collar County chairs, their staff and legislators to get the provision taken out.

Why it matters: committee members said the quarter-cent RTA sales tax is a meaningful revenue source for DuPage County. Chip Humes told the committee the proposal would have been "catastrophic" for the county and that preserving the tax was a principal focus…