McCloy on Lewis vote for transportation bill: ‘This is how Illinois got destroyed: weak Republicans cave’
Kristina McCloy, founder of Concerned Parents of Illinois, said Illinois’ new Chicago-area transit bailout is a taxpayer-funded handout to city insiders and accused State Sen. Seth Lewis (R-Bartlett) of betraying his voters by supporting it.
“This wasn’t a transit bill,” McCloy told DuPage Policy Journal. “It was a bailout for Chicago’s bloated, bankrupt pension system and the insiders who drained it dry, forcing working families to pay higher tolls and taxes so city bureaucrats can keep cashing massive pensions while suburban and downstate communities lose critical infrastructure funding.”
The legislation, signed by Gov. J.B. Pritzker, redirects over $500 million annually from constitutionally protected road funds, raises tolls by an estimated $1 billion a year, and funnels roughly $1.5 billion annually to the CTA, Metra, and Pace while consolidating transit power in Cook County, creating a Northern Illinois Transportation Authority, implementing a unified fare system, and mandating audits every five years.
According to Illinois Policy, Chicago’s pensions, including the CTA plan which is only funded at 54.8%, carry $51 billion in debt, leaving the city worse off than 43 states.
Prior to the bill’s signing the CTA faced a projected $250 million budget shortfall in fiscal year 2026, with recurring deficits expected due to declining ridership, rising costs and an outdated revenue structure heavily reliant on fares and sales taxes, the University of Chicago reported.
McCloy also decried the legislation’s failure to address the CTA’s declining ridership and safety issues.
“Chicago transit is in a death spiral because people are being stabbed, robbed, beaten, even lit on fire, and nobody wants to ride it; instead of fixing the violence or the waste, Democrats are raiding taxpayers statewide to rescue a system they refuse to reform,” she said.
In September, the Trump administration warned the CTA to submit a safety plan within 14 days or risk losing federal funding, citing what U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy called a “pattern of lawlessness,” with crimes occurring roughly every three hours.
Just over two months later, repeat offender Lawrence Reed, with 72 arrests and multiple felonies, was caught on video allegedly setting a woman on fire on the CTA Blue Line.
Reed was later accused of attempting to sexually assault another rider and attacking a man who intervened in a separate March incident.
At the bill signing, Pritzker said Lewis was “the sole Republican who voted to save our transit systems.”
However, McCloy says he abandoned GOP voters.
“This is how Illinois got destroyed: weak Republicans cave, Democrats loot the state, and the public pays the price,” she said. “And if you’re so desperate for praise from JB Pritzker that you’ll vote like his loyal little attack boy, then switch parties.”
She warned that grassroots conservatives are taking note.
“Any Republican who votes for tax hikes and Chicago bailouts isn’t a Republican, and the grassroots will make sure they never forget it," McCloy said.
Others have echoed similar concerns.
Former state Rep. Jeanne Ives called Lewis’ vote “one of the most egregious,” arguing the bill violates GOP principles by raising taxes and tolls, favoring Chicago over rural and downstate infrastructure, and failing to require reforms to transit operations, salaries or benefits.
Criticism of Lewis has intensified following a podcast discussion between State Sen. Andrew Chesney (R-Freeport) and attorney Tom DeVore, the 2022 Republican nominee for attorney general.
While both stressed that no illegal quid pro quo exists, they argued Republican defections on major tax-and-spending bills are often driven by political considerations rather than ideology.
“They do that only for one reason, there's not two reasons, is because they get political contributions down the road in exchange for those votes,” Chesney said.
DeVore added that lawmakers in solidly conservative districts who support Democratic-led revenue bills are rarely acting on principle and instead are tied to unspoken expectations of campaign donations or district-level benefits.
“They have been promised something in return for that vote,” DeVore said.
Lewis represents the 24th State Senate district which includes all or parts of Addison, Bartlett, Bloomingdale, Carol Stream, Elk Grove, Itasca, Hanover Park, Medinah, Naperville, Roselle, Schaumburg, Warrenville, West Chicago, Winfield, Wood Dale and Wheaton.