When I said “aim higher,” it might’ve been wise to add the caveat “not wider.”

The subject, in May 2024, was early rumblings of something called the Metropolitan Mobility Authority, a consolidated agency overseeing Metra, Pace and the CTA. I labeled the concept “limited in scope beyond what a truly visionary reform might entail,” a sentiment applicable to what eventually surfaced: the Northern Illinois Transit Authority.

Capitol News Illinois’ Ben Szalinski recently published an excellent explainer on the broader implications of Senate Bill 2111, the veto-session survivor best known for raising and allocating $1.5 billion to public transportation. Although the General Assembly didn’t seize the opportunity to aim higher and put all such concerns under one state umbrella – similar to efforts to consolidate and streamline early childhood services – the CNI report explains how the bill is more than a Chicagoland bailout.

The Department of Transportation gets up to $476.7 million to formalize passenger rail routes into the city from Peoria to Moline. Metro now is allowed to negotiate extensions outside its historical service area and is specifically tasked with studying the expansion of its Electric Line from University Park to Kankakee.

There is reason for optimism in those ideas, although such plans don’t speak to the role a modern public transportation system could play in every other daily need besides getting to and from Chicago. It’s a common refrain but an important reminder: Not every Illinoisan can afford or drive a car. Many people rely on family members to get them to and from work or medical appointments or to run basic errands.

Density, infrastructure and other factors vary widely by ZIP code, but every state agency deals with similar regional discrepancies and SB 2111 simply didn’t go far enough in addressing concerns about the shared basic need to get from here to there.

What the bill did accomplish, unfortunately, is increase power for public entities that haven’t routinely fulfilled their current missions, as it “would allow transit agencies to buy, build, own, operate or maintain sites for residential or commercial development,” Szalinski wrote. “Areas for development would be within a half mile of a train station or one-eighth of a mile of a bus stop. The goal is to allow more people to live, work or engage in economic activity with easy access to public transportation.”

It’s a good big-picture goal. But it also invites mission creep, almost guaranteeing dilution of newly acquired funding by agencies that routinely cry poor, while underscoring a metropolitan focus of bringing people closer to fixed routes without addressing the needs of Illinoisans who aren’t relocating but still require access to subsidized vehicle services.

More government doesn’t solve these problems. Especially when it doesn’t try.

• Scott T. Holland writes about state government issues for Shaw Local News Network. He can be reached at sholland@shawmedia.com.