* Mayor Daley wasn’t pleased that nothing came of the mass transit funding bill during the veto session…
Mayor Daley criticized state lawmakers Saturday for failing to roll back the controversial program that lets all seniors ride public transit for free.
“Some legislators didn’t want to work this out,” said Daley, speaking at an unrelated event on the South Side. “It is really unfair because they’re hurting their own citizens.” He added: “It seems like nothing can get done in Springfield.”
But a CTA source Friday said the authority believed it had negotiated a deal with Gov. Quinn and the four legislative leaders to freeze fares in 2010 and 2011 in exchange for letting low-income seniors ride free while other seniors would pay as little as 85 cents. Daley did not criticize Quinn, even though the source claimed it was the governor who backed out of the deal.
As I’ve said before, this is faux populism. Real populism is ensuring that reasonably priced mass transit is available to as many people as possible.
Daley didn’t mention Gov. Pat Quinn’s name, but the Sun-Times editorial did…
With elections looming in February, far too many Illinois politicians — most notably, Gov. Quinn — refused to pull the plug last week on a program the CTA cannot afford and many seniors don’t need.
And here comes another Doomsday threat…
And this Christmas promises to be an especially glum holiday for more than 1,000 CTA workers, who face the prospect of being out of a job a little more than a month later.
Jim LaBelle, a transportation expert with the civic group Chicago Metropolis 2020 and a Metra director, said the service boards have no choice but to prepare for the worst-case scenarios.
“We’ll be going ahead with those plans we have discussed. I don’t see a reason to change that,” LaBelle said. “I think we’re still where we were before last week. It’s a tough time.”
Transit officials and experts say the outlook is particularly grim now that the legislative session has ended without the governor and General Assembly providing financial relief for the CTA, Metra and Pace.
One thing not mentioned in most stories is that the CTA told lawmakers they were preparing to lay off 1,000 workers, then the very next day revealed that they had sent out 1,800 layoff notices. This naturally angered legislators who have a hard time trusting the CTA/RTA anyway, and it resulted in a large gathering outside the House chambers late Thursday. I got there late so I missed the heavy-duty fireworks, but here’s a little video clip…
And the Tribune goes Medieval on the governor...
Instead of holding lawmakers’ feet to the fire this week, [Quinn] was playing Transit Fairy, waffling over free rides for seniors and promising everyone else cheap rides forever. That’s his shtick: make promises and leave the dirty work for others. No wonder so little of it actually gets done.
* Meanwhile, Daley appears to have radically changed his concept of what a new Chicago casino would look like…
“You don’t want a casino to hurt all your restaurants. You want a casino only to be for a casino — not for food and beverages and everything else. You go in there for one reason: to gamble,” the mayor said.
“If you look at other cities, they have . . . not gotten the benefits outside the casino. It’s not helped restaurants or anything else. They go in there and stay there.”
In the past, Daley has talked about a huge casino with high-end restaurants and other activities, like Detroit’s opulent MGM Grand hotel/casino.
* Other state stuff…
* Readers quick to hop aboard CTA fix-it train
* Cemetery Reform Measure Stalled Until 2010
* New Law Helps Illinois Renters in Foreclosure Limbo
* Tribune editorial: Lawmakers deserve credit for getting this right. There’s no need to delay here. Sign the bill, Governor. Then the Cook County Board should repeal that tax increase in its entirety — over Stroger’s veto, if that’s what it takes.
* It appears there won’t be a road salt spike this year
* Compared to last year, state gets a break on price of road salt
* Illinois prepares for early release of prisoners
* Illinois parental notification law goes into effect Tuesday
* One-on-One with Mayor Richard Daley
* Chicago’s parking blues
* Minority contracting figures still sore point for city