Every once in a while I’ll hear someone say that the lottery was passed to finance education.

If I have time, I’ll correct that impression.

When I attended my second New Members Conference put on by the Legislative Research Council, veteran member Zeke Giorgi was a luncheon speaker.

There I learned Chicago Aldermen are allowed to carry concealed guns by sitting at the same table with then-Alderman Rickey Hendon when someone mentioned he was packing in the Holiday Inn East.  Hendon told us it was dangerous in Chicago.  (I don’t know if he carried it on the Senate floor, but there was one organization Democrat who did so in the House.)

Giorgi gave some helpful hints and then passed out the front page of the Chicago Sun-Times the day after the lottery passed.

It said that the lottery was passed to pay for the Regional Transportation Authority.

Now, Giorgi, the sponsor of the lottery, certainly promoted it as a way to fund education.

And most people think that is why it passed.

But, that’s just not correct.

Northwest Herald guest columnist Scott Reeder, who admits he heard adults carping about how money from the lottery was being “stolen” from education, is one who needs correcting.

The thesis of the Illinois Policy Institute’s Scott Reeder’s guest column is that any money government takes is interchangeable with other money. In other words, earmarking cannot be counted upon to mean anything. Good analysis, but he has a misconception that the lottery was passed to finance schools. It wasn’t. It was passed to finance the RTA and actually brought in the amount projected during the first year–about $67 million.

He has a good excuse for not knowing.

After all, he was a kid when the RTA and the lottery were linked in passage.

Since 1974 when Downtown Chicago business interests financed the referendum to impose taxes on the suburbs to subsidize the CTA, promises have been made that there would be a “Universal Pass.”

If something was promised 38 years ago and has not been delivered yet, why would anyone believe that the “powers that be” want people to have a more or less seamless public transportation system?

The answer is pretty obvious.

It is not in the self-interest of the “players” to have one.

May 29, 2012, the Chicago Sun-Times said RTA Chairman John Gates thinks a universal mass transit pass might be available if the CTA, RTA and Pace were combined. That would, of course, give Chicago complete control of the operation.

Since all in McHenry County but Algonquin Township are among those who reside in the new 14th Congressional District, I thought the followed email from Congressman Randy Hultgren might be of interest:

It’s been a great month so far back in the 14th District. I’d like to thank everyone for coming out to my town hall meetings this month. We may not agree on all of the issues, but it means so much to me that you are willing to be engaged in the process and have your opinions heard on the issues most important to you.

This photo has four congressional districts represented. 14th District Congressman Randy Hultgren talks with 8th Congressional District State Central and Barrington Township Committeeman Gene Dawson. Dawson's home and mine are located in Peter Roskam's new 6th Congressional District under the Democrats' reapportionment plan. The photo was taken at State Rep. Mike Tryon's Huntley Fish Boil, which is now located in Don Manzullo's 16th District. Grafton Township is located in the new 14th District. Christy Hultgren and the couple's children are also in the shot.

Please remember that I am holding another town hall meeting on Monday, August 29, in the Yorkville City Council Chambers at 6:00 pm. Hope to see you there.

I’ve always said that some of my most important work is done back home in Illinois, and that’s absolutely been the case this August. While I’ve been home, I’ve had the opportunity to meet with hundreds of constituents through one-on-one meetings, speeches to different groups and organizations, and local business tours.

I was particularly proud to be joined earlier this month in Oswego by State Rep. Tom Cross, Oswego Mayor Brian LeClercq and Metra CEO Alex Clifford to announce that Metra is moving forward with the Phase 1 Engineering studies to advance a project to extend commuter rail service to Oswego.

This project will be a huge victory for a region that has seen incredible growth over the past decade by helping to ease congestion on our expressways and providing a huge economic boost to the entire area.

I’d like to thank the students at Northern Illinois University for welcoming me to campus last week. I’m truly impressed by the work of these students. They are great representatives of the area, the 14th District and the state of Illinois and I wish them the best of luck as they begin to pursue their chosen careers.

If you haven’t already, be sure to “like” my Facebook page, follow me on Twitter, or check out my YouTube page to stay informed on everything I’m doing on your behalf in Washington and in Illinois. Also, I’ve updated my Facebook page with dozens of pictures from my meetings throughout the district this month – be sure to check it out.

As always, it is truly an honor to serve you in Washington. Please contact me at 630.232.7104 or 202.225.2976 if I can be of assistance, or if you’d like to share your thoughts on the issues before Congress.

In service,

Randy Hultgren
Member of Congress

Hultgren in the News

Randy Hultgren Pays Visit to Batavia Business

Hultgren reflects on first year in Congress

Hultgren addresses Elgin chamber on jobs, D.C. politics

Oswego Metra station still chugging on the slow track

Hultgren bids for constituents’ respect, whether they support him or not

Hultgren, state legislators address senior issues

The billboard near his office that set Jack Franks off.

Kevin Craver of the Northwest Herald wrote a story Tuesday about McHenry County Board Chairman Ken Koehler’s unwillingness to ask for the resignation of former State Senator Jack Schaffer from the Metra Board.

The first indication I could find of Franks’ displeasure was after the fall election when he introduced bulls to toss both RTA and Metra Board members. Just a coincidence, Franks would have folks believe, is that Schaffer is a former McHenry County Republican Party Chairman as is RTA Board member Al Jourdan.  And Schaffer owns Liberty Outdoor Advertising.

According to the article

Schaffer “said he believes Franks’ efforts stem directly from the billboard ad on Route 47 in Woodstock, which alleged that Franks collected almost $1 million from lobbyists, unions and lawyers.

“’To the extent that he’s attacking everyone on the board, that bothers me, but if he’s strictly after me, as a former legislator, I’m offended by it,’ Schaffer said. ‘Voters elect people to go out and represent them, not to pursue petty vendettas. The state has plenty of other problems to focus on.’”

Missing from the article was a photo of the billboard. Had anyone asked, I would have been pleased to provide the one you see here.

The billboard that infuriated State Rep. Jack Franks.

Almost to the day, one year after Metra Executive Director Phil Pagano committed suicide by stepping in front of the last morning train from McHenry, Democratic Party State Rep. Jack Franks decided to send a letter to McHenry County Board Chairman Ken Koehler calling for his Metra appointee Jack Schaffer to step down.

When I write about my former legislative colleague from the 1970′s, I identify him as a former State Senator and sometimes as a former McHenry County Republican Party Chairman.

Jack Franks' May 3, 2011, letter, page 1. Click to enlarge any image.

To put Franks’ letter into context, however, it is not his membership on the Metra board that is most important. It is not his Republican Party activity.

It is his ownership of the Liberty Outdoor billboard company that is significant.

Prior to the fall election, when Franks was facing his first Republican challenger in three elections, McHenry Grade School and Library Board member John O’Neill, the man who would run for statewide office or Congress, faced a withering billboard on the way to work.

Citing a reputable source, it pointed out Franks’ main sources of campaign funding–besides his family:

Jack Franks' May 3, 2011, letter, page 2. Click to enlarge.

• Lawyers
• Labor
• Lobbyists

I understand the placement was paid for, but Franks doesn’t like bad publicity.

So, what to do?

On March 17, 2011, Franks introduced House Bill 1516 to eliminate fringe benefits from Metra Board members. I wrote earlier of how it did not make in out of the Committee on Mass Transit.

The same day Franks introduced HB 1548 to abolish Metra as a separate agency. He did not call it for a committee vote.

Jack Franks' May 3, 2011, letter, page 3. Read the post script. Click to enlarge.

Since Pagano’s financial improprieties became public in April of 2010, I looked at last year’s bill introductions by Franks.

There were so many that I might have missed one about the Metra board, one calling for replacement of all members, for instance, but all I could find after the public learned of the money Pagano made off with was House Bill 6946.

A lot of Metra trains came around this corner in Des Plaines, plus one billboard on Route 47, before State Rep. Jack Franks (D-Marengo) decided to try to get former State Senator and McHenry County GOP Chairman off the Metra Board.

It was not introduced until the week after the fall election.

It called for the 2011 election of a nine-member RTA Board, none of which would be paid. The current CTA, Metra and PACE Boards would be eliminated.

That certainly would have gotten rid of Schaffer as a Metra Board member.

The same day, November 11, 2010, Franks introduced HB 6950. Similar goal–election of a non-partisan, unpaid nine-member Regional Transportation Board and elimination of the current ruling superstructure.

Both bills were introduced after the billboard, I would note

It was right before Pagano’s death, April 28 2010, however, that the public learned that he had made off with lots of money. By May 14, 2010 more details were being made public.

So, if Franks was not interested enough in Metra governance to introduce a bill prior to the billboard paper being pasted on the Route 47 Liberty Outdoor right south of Woodstock Harley-Davidson, why would anyone question that the motivation for his trying to get rid of Schaffer from the Metra Board was vindictiveness?

Franks’ post script to his letter to Koehler reads,

Ken-

I know you and I disagree on this, but I feel so strongly that we must go  in a different direction to separate us from the past and to start over.

I know Jack is your friend but in your heart you know his departure is best for the county.

The billboard message that ticked Jack Franks off.

I’ve written previously of State Rep. Jack Franks’ personal motivation for going after Metra and RTA board members, but let me remind readers that Metra Board member Jack Schaffer owns Liberty Outdoor, the company that puts up small billboards favored by politicians and Al Jourdan still is active in McHenry County Republican politics.

Neither favor having Jack Franks represent McHenry County in Springfield or Washington.

Specificity ticking off Franks this past fall was one billboard on Route 47 going into Woodstock.

On the trip from Chicago to Crystal Lake this engine got a snow facelift. It is beginning its reverse trip Downtown.

With that background, it is still possible for a piece of legislation motivated at least in part to make trouble for political enemies to serve a solid public purpose. Few would argue that Metra could use a bit more oversight.

Franks guided State Senator Susan Garrett’s Senate Bill 3965 through the Illinois House. It passed the House 92-21-1, the Senate 53-3. (The “No” votes in both the houses came from Downstate Republicans. All local legislators voted for the bill.)

Wonder Lake Pace bus on Route 47 in Woodstock.

And, even though Franks did not support Governor Pat Quinn in the primary election, Quinn put Franks’ name in his press release. (Good move on Quinn’s part.)

The bill “brings oversight of the regional transit boards under the jurisdiction of the Executive Inspector General and Executive Ethics Commission,” the press release announced.

After noting the sponsorship, the release further explained that the legislation “requires each regional inspector general to submit a monthly report to the Executive Inspector General which will outline, among other things, the agency’s reported complaints, as well as investigation status and outcomes.

“The Executive Inspector General will work to detect and prevent fraud and mismanagement at all levels of the transit agencies…Senate Bill 3965 has an effective date of July 1.”

CTA Repid Transit crossing the Chicago River.

Let me augment that summary by showing you the bill summary legislators saw:

• 

  Jack Franks

  Amends the State Officials and Employees Ethics Act. Provides that, beginning January 1, 2011, the Executive Inspector General has jurisdiction over all board members and employees of the Regional Transit Boards and all vendors and others doing business with the Regional Transit Boards to investigate allegations of fraud, waste, abuse, mismanagement, misconduct, nonfeasance, misfeasance, malfeasance, or violations of the Act.

• Requires the board of each Regional Transit Board to designate an ethics officer. Authorizes Regional Transit Boards to hire an Inspector General to receive complaints and conduct investigations in accordance with an ordinance or resolution adopted by the Board.
• Authorizes the Executive Inspector General to disclose otherwise confidential information to an Inspector General appointed or employed by a Regional Transit Board.
• Specifies additional duties for the Executive Inspector General.
• Details the responsibilities of Inspectors General appointed or employed by a Regional Transit Board, which include, among other things, the filing of monthly activity reports with the Executive Inspector General.
• Provides that, in specified portions of the Act: “appointee” and “officer” include a person appointed to serve on the board of a Regional Transit Board and “employee” and “State employee” include a full-time, part-time, or contractual employee of a Regional Transit Board.
• Defines “Regional Transit Boards” and “board members of Regional Transit Boards”.
• Amends the Metropolitan Transit Authority Act to provide that a member of the Chicago Transit Authority may be removed by the Governor in response to a summary report issued by the Executive Inspector General provided he or she has an opportunity to be publicly heard in person or by counsel prior to removal.
• Amends the Regional Transportation Authority Act to provide that directors of the Regional Transportation Authority and members of the Suburban Bus Division and Commuter Rail Division may be removed by the Governor in response to a summary report issued by the Executive Inspector General, provided that they have an opportunity to be publicly heard in person or by counsel prior to removal. Effective July 1, 2011.
• Provides that within 30 days after the effective date of the amendatory Act, a Regional Transit Board must notify the Executive Ethics Commission of (rather than “or”) any person serving on that date as an Inspector General for the Regional Transit Board.

Missing from Quinn’s press release is his newly-enacted power to remove Metra, RTA, CTA and Pace board members.

Also missing is that board members could be removed for “nonfeasance.”

So, if you have ethical complaints about any mass transit agency, there soon will be a way to get more people to look at them now.

Didn’t the “Lone Ranger” television show start with something like that?

When the extension of the CTA from Jefferson Park to O’Hare was being considered, it was right after the Regional Transportation Authority was shoved down the throats of suburbanites.

We lost the paper ballot referendum by less than 13,000 votes, I would remind folks, and the newly-formed Illinois State Board of Elections refused to order a recount, not a surprise because all of the Establishment favored RTA’s tax hikes to bail out the Chicago Transit Authority.

There was no need for a tax hike for mass transit in McHenry County. The Chicago & Northwestern commuter service was not losing money.

Indeed, since more people walked to work then than took mass transit, one could better argue for a shoe leather subsidy than one for people who made 50% more than the average household in the county.

The fight against the creation of the RTA locally (the referendum got over a 90% vote in McHenry County with the only precinct–one in Downtown Cary–reporting a favorable results–and, in that, an election judge told me they reversed the results when they made out their report) stimulated my interest in mass transit expenditures.

I watched proposals for the Franklin Street Subway (eventually scrapped) and the extension of the Chicago Transit Authority to O’Hare.

CTA train from O'Hare puling into the Jefferson Park Station.

On June 22, 1978, I held forth on the House floor on the subject. Since I mentioned passenger service to O’Hare and Mayor Richard Daley has just proposal to build an express CTA line to the airport, I thought you might be interested:

“This will cost $175 million to build. It will again provide virtually no new transportation opportunities because there now is express service from the Jefferson Street Station to O’Hare Airport.

“Alternatives could be put into operation probably in less than a year and cost less than $20 million.

“May I cite the most tempting of alternatives?

“The Milwaukee Road has a West Line running to Elgin, which passes within one mile of the O’Hare Airport terminal.

“The primary purpose of the O’Hare extension is to bring workers to the O’Hare office and business complex surrounding the airport.

“It’s not to bring passengers.

“In fact, according to Joby Berman, who has been the mass transportation expert for the last three governors, which must mean she has something going for her…and I think she has a great deal going to her.

“The cars which the CTA intends to spend $600,000 apiece for to run along this line to O’Hare Airport are not even going to contain facilities for luggage. (emphasis added).

“That means the primary purpose of the extension to O’Hare is obviously not to take airline passengers from hotels to the airport.

“Incidentally, if that were the primary purpose, one should consider that 95% of the hotel rooms where people use airlines are on Michigan Avenue, not down in the Loop anymore.”

How will planners operate an express train to O'Hare with only two tracks. Notice the license plate is of a limo in the photo. Presumably after the new concrete is poured, the driver will have less revenue. Click to enlarge any image.

I argued the money to be spent on the extension could be spent on mass transit elsewhere, the South Suburbs being one, or on highway construction.

In addition, I pointed out the line would not pay its own way as far as operating expenses went. The estimated operating deficit at the time was $7.151 million.

A pre-Speaker Mike Madigan, whom I debated the RTA referendum on WBBM-’s At Issue, was the one arguing against my amendment.

Although the Democrats were in control of the House in 1978, its being after the 1974 Watergate wipe out, the amendment got 57 “Yes” votes. Not nearly enough in the 116 vote House, but respectable, it seems to me.

There is a certain irony in the man who controls concrete maker Material Service heading up the effort.

He was also the person who appeared on WTTW’s Chicago Tonight when the new runway for O’Hare was announced.

Does anyone but me see a certain convergence of Crown’s private interest with his public role?

Chicago Sun-Times reporter Fran Spielman didn’t think it was worth mentioning. Neither did the WTTW moderator.

The man more responsible than anyone else for the Regional Transportation Authority’s tripling of the RTA Sales Tax in McHenry and other collar counties has decided he doesn’t want to be RTA Chairman anyway.

He told the Chicago Sun-Times that he had to serve out his term as DuPage County Board Chairman.

This same DuPage County Board Chairman is the one who convinced enough DuPage County state senators to vote for the huge RTA Sales Tax hike to pass the bill.

He did it because the use of the proceeds of a quarter of a percentage point of the tax bu collar county boards was broadened from transportation to transportation and law enforcement. At the time, DuPage County had a referendum on the ballot to raise the local sales tax to pay for the Sheriff’s and State’s Attorney’s Office (read Joe Birkett, just in case you have forgotten).

Fat chance the voters would have approved that proposal at the ballot box.

GOP candidate for Governor Bill Brady converses with his former gubernatorial opponent Kirk Dillard on the Family PAC cruise last night. Dillard introduced Brady to the crowd.

The vote cast by State Senator Kirk Dillard, among others, may well have cost him the nomination for governor, which was won by State Senator Bill Brady.  Brady got 155,527 votes to Dillard’s 155,334, a victory margin of 193 votes.  Schillerstrom receiver 7,420.

So, what would have happened if tax hiker Bob Schillerstrom, who also ran for governor, but as the most liberal Republican candidate, bombed, pulling out before the election, but not soon enough to get his name off the ballot (another reason one could attribute to Dillard’s slim loss)?

Any suburbanite who voted for him would have been open to rather severe criticism.

= = = = =

CTA third rail warning.

Related articles:

A Third Rail on Transit – Part 1

A Third Rail on Transit – Part 2

Suburban Legislators with a Cost-Benefit Analysis Impairment

RTA Sales Tax Increase 200%

When’s the last time that you heard of a government not seeking more power.

Think municipalities annexing property.

Think village trustees not being able to wait to have a population of 25,000 certified so it can be a Home Rule unit and not have to play, “Mother, may I?” with the Illinois General Assembly.

And, then there’s the Regional Transportation Authority.

When the Democrats reorganized mass transportation in the six county area, they gave the Regional Transportation Authority more power. The RTA got financial oversight over Metra.

It’s hard to argue that Metra doesn’t need someone looking at its books besides the people who have been doing it over the ten or so years that Phil Pagano was stealing our tax dollars and ticket money.

So, what did the RTA Board do at its meeting this week?

The Chicago Sun-Times reports RTA Board member Pat Durante (R-Addison) saying,

“Our agency is continuing to look into the situation, but due to an ongoing investigation being conducted by the U.S. Attorney’s office, and at the office’s request, we are unable to comment further at this time.”

McHenry County RTA Board member Al Jourdan

RTA Executive Director Steve Schlickman

Executive Director Steve Schlickman declined comment to the paper.

Johnsburg’s Al Jourdan serves as McHenry County’s representative on the RTA.

From the front page of the Chicago Tribune April 26, 2010.

I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that the RTA’s Metra commuter trains to and from Chicago are featured in a critical article on the front page of the Tribune today.

The beef is that riders can’t access the internet on the train.

It reminds me of the first thing the Regional Transportation Authority did when it took over the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad’s trains.

Under Northwestern operation, there was water available on the trains. One would take a little paper cup, push a button and out came drinkable water.

The first noticeable change under RTA management in the late 1970′s was the covering of the water dispensing part of the commuter cars with a stainless steel panel.

A real loss for those who commuted over an hour. Think McHenry County, where the fastest train to Crystal Lake was about an hour.

So, RTA’s commuter service started out ignoring customer wishes. Riders number 150,000 a day now.

Metra commuter cars at grade crossing next to the Downtown Crystal Lake train station.

Last year, Metra, created in the early 1980′s to give suburban politicians their own patronage haven, had to be hounded into the late 1900′s on the use of credit cards.  It took a bill sponsored by State Rep. Michael Bond (D-Grayslake).

Want a ticket, have cash. Or a check in some instances, like for monthly passes.

Now, it appears the Tribune is about to start another campaign to improve customer service on the trains. It seeks Wi-Fi.

Simplistically, one might ascribe the three failures in meeting customer needs to the monopoly nature of the rail service. But, the Chicago and Northwestern had a monopoly and still provided water for riders.

And other commuter lines in the USA have managed to figure out how to allow customers to access the internet. Santa Fe, New York, Boston, Silicon Valley’s run between San Jose and Stockton, even Amtrak on the East Coast, manage to provide internet service.

The Tribune article notes that Metra’s response is basically “providing wireless internet is too expensive and technologically challenging.”

Probably none of McHenry County Blog’s readers are old enough to remember when railroads were THE high tech part of the American economy.

Metra’s advice to those who want train internet service is to buy through their cell phone providers. The Tribune says the cost is $20-60 a month.

Metra could, of course, provide the service and charge for it.

Rep. Bond is sponsoring another bill to require it, the Tribune says.  Something about bringing Metra into the 21st Century.