Illinois House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch on Friday defended the revenue choices state lawmakers made to deliver a $1.5 billion mass transit bailout that he believes will serve as a long-term fix for Chicago area transit agencies.

The package that made it to Gov. JB Pritzker’s desk looked nothing like the version championed by Welch’s chief transit negotiators. Gone were taxes on streaming services, tickets to large events and an untested “billionaires tax” on unrealized capital gains.

At a time when Mayor Brandon Johnson has been beating the drum for progressive revenue, the Illinois General Assembly chose the most regressive tax of all to help fund mass transit — a 0.25% increase in the already high sales tax in Chicago and the suburban and collar county region served by the Regiona

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