The good news is that the Illinois Legislature finally passed a bill to fund Chicago-area mass transit with a 0.25% (that's one quarter of one percent!) sales tax increase -- the same bill that was proposed several months ago!
The bad news is that, when the bill was sent to Gov. Blagojevich, he said he wouldn't sign until the Legislature agreed to provide free rides for senior citizens on "main line and fixed route public transit service" (thus, presumably, NOT on paratransit). He claims this is his way of easing the impact of the sales tax increase, despite the fact that the tax hike is in the metro counties only but the proposed no-fare rule would apply to all transit authorities statewide. <_<
Now, the Legislature has to either amend the bill to include his proposal or override the veto, the latter being unlikely because the bill passed the Senate with NO votes to spare!
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/c...story?track=rss
http://www.illinois.gov/PressReleases/Show...amp;RecNum=6540
My personal $0.2: Blago is, for some arcane reason, trying to "kill" the transit funding bill without formally opposing it, by adding a politically unpalatable (because financially undoable) "poison pill" to the bill. :angry:
*Not everyone on a fixed income and transit-dependent is a senior, so the bill is not really a counterbalance to the tax increase as Blago claims.
*Not every senior citizen is on a fixed income. I don't think some over-65 bank VP from Lake Forest riding the UP-North to work or the opera should ride for free. I have no problem with a senior discount, but we already have that.
*Ironically, the free-seniors proposal probably hurts Downstate MUCH more than metro Chicago, because seniors are presumably a much larger portion of the ridership on a bus system like Rockford's or Springfield's or Peoria's than a widely-used system like the CTA or Metra.
The bad news is that, when the bill was sent to Gov. Blagojevich, he said he wouldn't sign until the Legislature agreed to provide free rides for senior citizens on "main line and fixed route public transit service" (thus, presumably, NOT on paratransit). He claims this is his way of easing the impact of the sales tax increase, despite the fact that the tax hike is in the metro counties only but the proposed no-fare rule would apply to all transit authorities statewide. <_<
Now, the Legislature has to either amend the bill to include his proposal or override the veto, the latter being unlikely because the bill passed the Senate with NO votes to spare!
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/c...story?track=rss
http://www.illinois.gov/PressReleases/Show...amp;RecNum=6540
My personal $0.2: Blago is, for some arcane reason, trying to "kill" the transit funding bill without formally opposing it, by adding a politically unpalatable (because financially undoable) "poison pill" to the bill. :angry:
*Not everyone on a fixed income and transit-dependent is a senior, so the bill is not really a counterbalance to the tax increase as Blago claims.
*Not every senior citizen is on a fixed income. I don't think some over-65 bank VP from Lake Forest riding the UP-North to work or the opera should ride for free. I have no problem with a senior discount, but we already have that.
*Ironically, the free-seniors proposal probably hurts Downstate MUCH more than metro Chicago, because seniors are presumably a much larger portion of the ridership on a bus system like Rockford's or Springfield's or Peoria's than a widely-used system like the CTA or Metra.