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* Ben Joravsky makes a very good point about the governor’s proposal to let seniors ride free on mass transit…
Mayor Daley was among those who promptly blasted Blagojevich’s plan. “Any politician can give things for free, but there’s no such thing as a free lunch,” Daley lectured reporters over the weekend. “Someone has to pay for it.”
Amen, brother. Though I have to say the mayor’s fiscal restraint caught me by surprise. By coincidence, I’d attended the party-down scene at the January 8 meeting of his Community Development Commission, where city officials were throwing around property tax dollars like confetti: $75 million to Rush University Medical Center, $8.5 million to Grossinger Auto, and a to-be-announced TIF handout to a consortium of developers led by former First Ward alderman Ted Mazola to build a bunch of town houses in a swamp down by Wolf Lake, on the city’s southeast side. And that’s just one CDC get-together — they meet once a month.
So on the city pushes with its massive transformation, tearing down public housing, closing schools, selling off property on the south and west sides, moving out the poor people, and driving up the cost of living with higher fines, fees, and taxes. Then free rides for seniors get condemned as a waste.
It’s a great day to be a zoning lawyer, or a lawyer working on commercial property tax appeals, or a developer, or an alderman-turned-developer, or a Daley-administration-aide-turned-lobbyist, all merrily riding the gravy train. But it’s not such a great day for old ladies riding the bus.
“Process” arguments about a super-unpopular governor’s pandering publicity stunt are just that. Process. The bottom line is that Democrats and Republicans pander to oldsters all the time, and bigtime corporate handouts are the acceptable way of the political world. So now letting Grandma ride the bus for free is somehow unconscionable? Please.
* And then there’s this, from Sneed…
Sneed hears Ald. Isaac Carothers and Ald. Ed Burke are preparing an amendment keeping senior citizens exempt from the new real estate transfer tax proposal hidden in the transit bailout package.
The buckshot: “It’s a burden they shouldn’t have to shoulder,” said a Sneed source . . . referring to the proposed tax increase on the sale of a home from $7.50 to $10 per $1,000.
* Meanwhile, the Tribune gives us a helpful bullet-point list of what’s coming this week…
* The House committee will hold a public hearing on free rides for seniors idea Wednesday at the Thompson Center in Chicago.
* The General Assembly is likely to vote on legislation Thursday.
* Transit officials say they remain hopeful that the legislature will act before the weekend.
* More transit stuff, compiled by Kevin…
* Capital bill could be on the horizon…or not
* How drastic cuts redraw transit map
* Transit bailout could cost village of Beecher
posted by Rich Miller
Wednesday, Jan 16, 08 @ 10:04 am
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“It’s a great day to be a zoning lawyer, or a lawyer working on commercial property tax appeals”
Hmmm…. Who does that describe?
Comment by GoBearsss Wednesday, Jan 16, 08 @ 10:07 am
I guess I can see the point by Joravsky. They pander because the elderly are doing the voting.
Comment by Levois Wednesday, Jan 16, 08 @ 10:15 am
The legislature should send the transit bill back to the Governor minus the free rides for seniors. Why?
The seniors don’t need anymore than the 50% discount they already get.
The seniors don’t want anymore discount than they already get.
The transit system can’t afford free rides. The President of the CTA is already calling for a fair increase.
The Governor’s proposal does not address any additional safety or economic issues the system would encounter if more mobility challenged passengers start using it.
I was encouraged Rep Fritchey’s comments from yesterday’s blog. I hope others show the fiscal responsibility necessary to oppose this political extortion
Comment by Garp Wednesday, Jan 16, 08 @ 10:23 am
“The bottom line is that Democrats and Republicans pander to oldsters all the time, and bigtime corporate handouts are the acceptable way of the political world. ”
As though that makes it alright.
And “acceptable” depends on whom you are asking–taxpayers or the corrupt leaders and their fat-cat buddies.
As well, the process is the story: How an egomaniac, at the last moment, had to pull another ill-thought idea out of his hat, giving riders one more week of this super-fun anxiety and frustration. It might be a decent idea, but not at the last moment.
Ben makes a great point, but his words imply that people are not angry about the TIF abuse and corporate handouts as well. People are, thanks in large part to his reporting. It’s all part of the same stinking pile that is Illinois government.
Comment by tom73 Wednesday, Jan 16, 08 @ 10:24 am
Uh oh, giving senios more free ish is catching. They already get too much, now free transit, medicare, ssi, free re tranfer, it is like a race.
Comment by Wumpus Wednesday, Jan 16, 08 @ 10:40 am
The Southern story on the capital bill is disappointing. I have always been in favor of the bill, just not the way they wanted to pay for it - with massive casino expansion.
Then yesterday I discovered by probing, it will be far cheaper for Illinois citizens to pay a quarter point more in income taxes then to lose at a casino and pay the gambling interests a big cut.
If the people support such a move, then the increase will happen. There will be no shenanigans and false hopes raised that people can beat impossible odds and win at casinos. For the month of December, 2007 the Illinois Gaming Board reports casinos reaped $122 in adjusted gross receipts for each of the 1.23 million admissions to Illinois’ nine casino boats.
According to the Illinois Department of Revenue a quarter point increase in Illinois’ income tax would cost $110 annually per return in Illinois. There are 5.75 million returns filed each year in the state. The bottom line: a tax increase is cheaper than shelling out money to a casino and feeds the state’s needs far better than cutting out a huge chunk for the gambling interests.
I really hope people pay attention to this rather than being a herd of sheep being led off to economic slaughter.
Doug Dobmeyer
Comment by Doug Dobmeyer Wednesday, Jan 16, 08 @ 11:10 am
Seniors need to be exempted from the tax on real estate transfers? Are you freaking kidding me?
How much did Sam Zell and Donald Trump give to Carothers and Burke?
a bunch of crap. Daley better get the peons in order and pass the tax. We’ve got like 4 days left.
And, I will be paying this tax down the line.
Comment by jerry 101 Wednesday, Jan 16, 08 @ 11:18 am
It would be an interesting weekend for sure if the legislature sent the bill back to Elvis minus the seniors ride free proporal. Would Elvis sit on it out of anger and one-upsmanship and let the transit system shut down on Monday? Would the legislature keep the seniors ride free addition but amend it to coincide with an income level, which would still need Elvis to actually do some work on State time? It could get very interesting if the legislature wanted; however, I think they will fold and approve Elvis’ “improvement”.
Comment by Little Egypt Wednesday, Jan 16, 08 @ 11:19 am
Clearly seniors are an active voting group and get a lot of giveaways. But this notion of a non-means tested free ride, combined with the ridiculous way in which he did it, does push this over the top. I think the indignation is at both of those issues, and not the notion of just another giveaway for seniors.
Comment by Chicago Cynic Wednesday, Jan 16, 08 @ 11:26 am
My concern with this is the State is running in the red finacialy. We need money to give away before we give it away.
Doug excellent point. I think the State building its fiscal health on gaming is a majorily bad idea and nothing but a house of cards waiting to crumble. The State should never make itself dependent on revenue from gaming to fund itself given the potential vagaries and downturns that can hit such a revenue source. We using gaming to raise revenue by concealing a form of voluntary sin tax to fund government. We are still exerting a taking against our citizens, we are just planning to hit up the lower income residents who are desperate for money with a system designed to get even more cash from them then would come from a slight tax increase. Then when gamine fails to produce the cash, from the smoking ban or whatever, we are left with an industry which increase crime, social problems and finacial problems for its citizens, BUT we still need money to fund ongoing govt programs and operations. Many of these will increase in cost as we need to support those who end up being ruined or victimized in the fallout from gameing. So we end up with an albatross around our neck and still need to raise taxes, but by then we will be so far in debt that a small tax increase will not nbe enough.
Its time to skip gameing as a paper prop for governemtn and look at a reliable and more stable source of revenue, tax increase.
Comment by Ghost Wednesday, Jan 16, 08 @ 11:31 am
What is different this time is the massive disgust for the guy sitting in the governor’s office.
So this is not something we can really compare since no one has a living memory of a governor in this situation. Ryan was a lame duck as he unraveled, which isn’t a new situation, and Walker wasn’t this hated and served only one term. Perhaps if Walker was re-elected we could have seen something like we are seeing today, but fortunately for us the Democrats had the good sense to knock him off during his re-election primary. The Party really failed Illinois by allowing Blagojevich to extend his disasterous administration another term.
So, what Blagojevich is teaching us government watcher and political observers is what happens to state government when a governor implodes into irrelevance after a poor first term.
What we are learning is that even when a governor like this proposes something remotely credible, the response from other officials and legislators reflect more on the man, and not the idea.
We are seeing that Blagojevich is now his own worse enemy. His unpopularity is now sinking even credible ideas, or causing credible ideas to be bludgeoned before being grudgingly accepted. As news about Blagojevich’s political buddies’ trials appear, this situation may worsen, believe it or not.
Yes, the free rides for seniors proposal is being castigated, but what is also being publically condemned is Rod Blagojevich himself, and the means in which he “governs” or proposes policies. The man and his ideas are now so negatively intertwined he could hold a presser announcing today’s date and still be attacked.
The level of anger towards Rod Blagojevich even surpasses what we saw towards President Bush in 2006, because the Presidency hold more reverence to us than a governorship, partially shielding Bush, but not Blagojevich. To have a Democratic governor held in such low esteem in a Democratic state while federal investigations continue to dissect and embarrass the governor is a new low.
Like a political arsonist, Blagojevich lit the match, but he can no longer control the flames which threaten to engulf him as it burns Illinois.
Comment by VanillaMan Wednesday, Jan 16, 08 @ 11:59 am
Love or hate the Governor, what he did is really intriguing and creates more questions than answers. Many people who work for environmental or public health groups, good government, city planning, etc., as well as a lot of progressives see auto dependent landscapes as a threat to America’s long term health and economic well being. This is more than simply saying cars are evil or bad. It’s about the inability to get where you need to get where you need to go without a car; it’s about car addiction. Over most of the last century, we have built an entire nation dependent only on the automobile – generally using 3000 lbs. of metal and plastic to move one person around, using fuel that comes from halfway around the world, and creating a huge storage problem (cars take up a lot of space any way you look at it).
Yet everyone praises public transit as an urban savior, as it moves large number of people around efficiently, including those not old enough, too old, or otherwise not able to drive. Yes, this includes poor people without cars who have few or no alternatives. The touchstone most closely tied to the benefits of transit in recent years is “smart growth”, an umbrella term that means a lot of different things to different people. But for the most part, its shorthand for more compact growth AND an environment that favors more trips by walking, cycling and transit. Most ongoing development is still outside core urban areas and very little of it could be called “transit friendly” with a straight face. Why are all the bus routes in the cities and suburbs in OLD neighborhoods? Because those older sections of the region were built for walking and mixed uses when very few people had cars and we didn’t have an interstate highway system.
Making transit free for seniors - even if a politically craven move that makes legislators look like schmoes if they oppose it - opens up a whole new consideration: What if transit were free for everyone? What if it were a FREE public good just like public libraries, public schools, public streets, etc. We don’t charge for those things and we support them with general tax dollars. Maybe that’s a good way to look at it – transit as merely part of the street.
You don’t pay a fee every time you walk on a public sidewalk or drive your car down a public street. Maybe its time to imagine what a transit system would be like if it were free for all taxpayers. Likewise, how would it change how we develop going forward? Or should we start charging kids for library privileges, or put tax surcharges on parents who use the public schools?
Comment by cleanairguy Wednesday, Jan 16, 08 @ 12:42 pm
Cleanairguy, don’t give Blago any ideas that he thinks will buy him votes. He would propose free mass transit for everyone if he thought he could get away with it, just because it sounds like a good idea. Unfortunately, that would bankrupt most of the mass transit districts in Illinois.
As for charging kids for library privileges, my children were charged for their library cards via taxes me and spouse paid to our library district. If you didn’t live in the district, then you had to pay for a card. Everyone pays - one way or another - but everyone pays.
Comment by Little Egypt Wednesday, Jan 16, 08 @ 1:10 pm
From Downtown: The Governor has packed the transit committee hearing room at the Thompson Center; no one else can get in, and there is a long line for the one metal detector just to get on the elevator. So much for an intelligent discussion of the free senior fares!
Comment by Legal Eagle Wednesday, Jan 16, 08 @ 2:27 pm
try re-reading Joravsky. I took it not so much as slamming the free rides or the process as highlighting the irony of Daley calling for fiscal restraint.
Comment by Hugh Wednesday, Jan 16, 08 @ 2:31 pm
Daley sure has stifled himself on this transit bill. It appears Rich Miller may be right and in the end the legislature will get railroaded into passing bad legislation, however, I still have hope there are some elected officials with enough integrity to send this bill right back to the Governor’s bungalow for more careful consideration.
Comment by Garp Wednesday, Jan 16, 08 @ 3:13 pm
The transfer tax is on the BUYER, not the seller. If seniors are buying real estate, they should pay like people struggling to buy a decent enough house in which to raise their families. This is really starting to get out of hand. Sheesh, I sure hope all these perks are still around when I’m a senior; but, I doubt it, since almost everyone will be a senior in the next 20 years under the current demographic trends.
I like the crap that “they’re on fixed incomes.” Hell, at least they HAVE incomes. Many of us don’t. I’m not anti-senior at all (hey, I have parents, too), but fair is fair. Not all seniors are poor. As a matter of fact, vast numbers of them are rather well off. Small wonder, with all the freebies our vote pandering politicians throw to them!
Comment by Snidely Whiplash Wednesday, Jan 16, 08 @ 11:53 pm
Other then concern about the money and the States finances I have no problem with the free ride program. Social security is not a lot of money, and many seniors have prescritpion medication costing hundred of dollars. I just wish they would do a statewide income tax and confirm real dollars in hand for all the State’s expenses before spending another 50 mil downstate from GRF.
Comment by Ghost Thursday, Jan 17, 08 @ 8:14 am
The problem with “free” is that people don’t respect “free”. They should pay something even if it’s only a nickle. Public schools and libraries engage users in totally different ways. Children are required by law to attend school. Library users must be registered and show identification of identity and residence.
Public transportation is a convenience just like cars and bikes. The downside to public transportation is the amount of time and energy invested in using it, not just the fee to use it. It is basically designed for commuting, not for grocery shopping. It is part of the fabric of urban living.
Why is Grossingers getting $8.5 million?
Comment by Anonymous Thursday, Jan 17, 08 @ 10:06 am
I forgot to add my name. The last post was me!
Comment by Emily Booth Thursday, Jan 17, 08 @ 10:07 am