It’s “Hold on to you hats” or more appropriately “pocket book” time in Springfield.
The latest to want to filch some of our money is the Regional Transportation Authority.
It only wants to double our current one-quarter of cent on every dollar sales tax.
Eric Krol and John Patterson of the Daily Herald raise the alarm that CTA-centric Chicago papers won’t. The Daily Herald’s story is headlined,
Why suburban residents could be bailing out CTA
They report the picking of suburban Cook and collar county pockets could be “$280 million a year.”
Although it is always possible that Downstate Republicans will cut a deal with Chicago Democrats to take money out of suburban pockets, there probably would be a resurrection of the 1974 coalition of suburban Republicans and Democrats.
Even if that happens, however, guess who the Daily Herald reporters say would ride to the rescue.
That’s right.
Governor Rod Blagojevich.
“I don’t support sales tax increases on people and that’s consistent with where I’ve been for the last four years,” Blagojevich told the Daily Herald when asked about the RTA plan.
On May 5th, Dennis Byrne, a reporter who covered the RTA fight for the Chicago Daily News wrote an insightful Chicago Tribune column.
It was entitled,
Transit ‘reform,’ yet again
He points out that “duplicate, contracting and administrative functions didn’t end” with the RTA’s creation.
“Mass transit was underfunded, thanks in part to the reluctance to charge riders what they should be paying (more than what they are now), generous CTA labor contracts and high CTA absenteeism, among other systemic problems…
“There is no one willing to crack down on the CTA—the main source of the RTA’s problems—because no one dares take on the city’s power, meaning Richard M. Daley’s power.
“…will a Democratic governor and a Democratic legislature really be willing to step over the line and crack down on the CTA, especially in light of Daley’s landslide re-election?
“Or will the legislature again just reshuffle the organization chart to make it look like something has happened, while continuing business as usual?”