The CTA, which is facing a massive funding shortfall next year, will hold three town halls this month regarding the agency’s next budget.

During the town halls, the CTA said, agency leaders will discuss the funding situation and CTA riders will have the opportunity to weigh in. The CTA said it would release its budget plans next month.

The Chicago region’s transit agencies face a budget deficit in the hundreds of millions of dollars next year as federal pandemic aid runs out. The CTA was previously expected to run out of money some months before Metra and suburban bus agency Pace.

But last month, the Regional Transportation Authority, which oversees all three agencies, reallocated $74 million from Pace and Metra to the CTA. Doing so, the RTA said, should push the CTA’s fiscal cliff back by a few months into the middle of next year. The hope is that the move will give state lawmakers — who failed to pass transit funding legislation this spring — more time to avert major cuts next year. Lawmakers plan to try again on transit funding during a legislative veto session in October.

Because of the funding uncertainty, the agencies are preparing budgets that assume lawmakers will come through with more money next year, and budgets that assume they don’t.

The town halls will all take place between 5:30 and 7 p.m. Doors open at 5 p.m. They will be held at the following locations:

• Pullman, Sept. 16: Imani Village, 901. E. 95th St.
• Uptown, Sept. 18: Truman College, 1145 W. Wilson Ave.
• Near West Side, Sept. 25: Malcolm X College, 1900 W. Jackson Blvd.

The town halls are separate from a formal budget hearing the agency will host later this year. Last year, the agency held its budget hearing in early November.

The CTA will also likely have to go through a Title VI process to ensure that proposed cuts or fare increases in next year’s budget do not disproportionately affect people of color or low-income people. Such a process also involves public hearings.