Board members for the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP) are hoping they have successfully averted a budget crisis and reclaimed more than three million dollars in state funds.

Six members journeyed to Springfield last week to meet with legislators and try to persuade them to reinstate the Comprehensive Regional Planning Fund. The fund provides $5 million each year for regional planning, $3.5 million of which goes to CMAP, which plans for transportation and land-use issues in northeastern Illinois.

“I would say that our legislators that we talked to get it,” said CMAP Executive Director Randy Blankenhorn at a board meeting Wednesday. “I think we are where we need to be in this process and that it will end.”

More important than the state’s contribution are the millions of federal dollars that would be lost without 20 percent matching funds from the Illinois government. A “call to action” on the agency’s Web site noted that CMAP’s budget “relies primarily” on $11 million each year from the U.S. Department of Transportation.

“They’re talking about wiping out all of our funds,” said Board Chairman Gerald Bennett. “I don’t think, talking to some of these reps or senators, that they knew if they wipe out all of our funds, we might not have a board. We might not have an organization.”

Illinois Department of Transportation Secretary Gary Hannig also suggested last week that maybe CMAP should be funded regionally, despite the fact that it was created by the Illinois General Assembly, Bennett added.

Ian Doughty, a non-voting board member representing Gov. Pat Quinn’s office, said Wednesday that CMAP could raise awareness of its cause at the state level by supporting House Bill 270, which would increase the board size from 15 to 17 members and give the governor the power to appoint two voting members. The legislation has been languishing in the House Rules Committee since April 3.

“It would also make a much easier argument that we are state-run,” he said.

Bennett said the agency has supported the bill in the past, but doesn’t foresee any such changes happening soon. Regardless, board members say they are hopeful that their downstate visit swayed the legislators in their favor. In the meantime, they plan to continue to write, call and e-mail legislators in Springfield and remind them of their cause.

Board member Elliott Hartstein said: “[the creation of CMAP] was one of the few pieces of legislation where there was almost virtual unanimity in the legislature when this organization was put together.”