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* 2:41 pm - Mo’ money on the table…

Gov. Rod Blagojevich is sweetening his bailout plan for mass transit in the Chicago area to forestall a “doomsday” of cuts this weekend.

Blagojevich is now offering to make the full $54 million, 2008 para-transit grant available to the Regional Transportation Authority. That’s on top of the $37 million advance he’d already offered to the RTA, with a total of $31 million slated for the Chicago Transit Authority.

posted by Rich Miller
Thursday, Sep 13, 07 @ 2:42 pm

Comments

Any idea on the source of these additional funds?

Comment by Tidy Bowl Man Thursday, Sep 13, 07 @ 2:44 pm
Gotta have money for the Santa train this year.

Comment by The 'Broken Heart' of Rogers Park Thursday, Sep 13, 07 @ 2:51 pm
For those who don’t get to the city often, here’s the Santa train. And no, I don’t think that’s Santa Rod.

Comment by The 'Broken Heart' of Rogers Park Thursday, Sep 13, 07 @ 2:57 pm
So what organization are getting cut to make this money available? None of these dollars are pork?

Comment by zatoichi Thursday, Sep 13, 07 @ 3:09 pm
Zatoichi, the money comes from CTA/RTA/PACE 2008 subsidies. Unless and until the state produces genuinely new money, this is a payday loan. But by offering it to everyone the governor makes it more difficult politically for Judy Baar Topinka and her allies on the RTA to put a stop to the insanity.

Comment by Angry Chicagoan Thursday, Sep 13, 07 @ 3:14 pm
Why is the CTA the victim in all of this? They have a pretty good PR dept since none of the coverage has looked at WHY the CTA is in the position yet again.

It seems to be instead of asking for bail-out after bail-out, someone needs to take a look at what the CTA is actually doing with the money it gets.

Comment by Red Line Rider Thursday, Sep 13, 07 @ 3:24 pm
Well, I believe that money is accumulated and paid through out the course of the year. Tax revenues come in over time. I dont think its just sitting in an account in total right after the budget is signed. They have to be “borrowing” it from somewhere else if they are going to be paying it in full in advance.

Comment by huh ? Thursday, Sep 13, 07 @ 3:27 pm
I’ve had that Beatles’s song in my head all day…”can’t buy me love…”

Comment by Jay Thursday, Sep 13, 07 @ 3:48 pm
I knew it. JBT is to blame for all of this.

Comment by Little Egypt Thursday, Sep 13, 07 @ 4:02 pm
“Any idea of the source of the additional funds?”….come on, that’s been standard procedure for this bunch since day one. “No idea”…is the correct response or maybe some of that 463 mill that got jostled around. And your right, where does the cash go ??? No-one is subsidizing my way to work. Maybe it’s time to raise the fares…with fuel hovering around $3.00 a gallon plus. Look at the overall money riders save ; no gas, insurance, parking etc., etc. I’d say the “pork’s a cookin’”.

Comment by annon Thursday, Sep 13, 07 @ 4:12 pm
Seems to me that the smart thing to do would be to hold out another day b/c the $$ figure keeps going up. What will it be tomorrow? Every day closer to “doomsday” brings more money from the King.

Comment by Green Line Thursday, Sep 13, 07 @ 4:26 pm
annon — how do you get to work if you claim nobody subsidizes you? unless you walk or bike, you’re fooling yourself to say nobody subsidizes your travel. drivers get even more subsidies than transit riders.

Red Line Rider — “someone needs to take a look at what the CTA is actually doing with the money it gets.” the state had the same idea and has done this already — take a look at the state auditors report. it found that while there’s room for management improvement, the system is fundamentally underfunded.

Comment by Carfree Chicago Thursday, Sep 13, 07 @ 4:29 pm
I know that when I worked on projects with govenment grants we had to be very careful to make sure we spent the money exactly as the grant stated and no where else. The concept of using a governmental funding source as a slush fund, to be paid back later was never considered.

Am I to understand that the governor is proposing that funds which are to be used for assistance for th handicapped be used to fill a hole in the general operating fund on the hope that there is a satifactory agreement on the funding issue?

I see why Mr. B is not in private busimess. People go to jail for that kind of thing…..

Comment by plutocrat03 Thursday, Sep 13, 07 @ 4:31 pm
I think it would be unwise for the RTA to agree to this non-bailout. Daley says it’s a risk worth taking, but I wouldn’t trust our state leaders with that big of a risk. They’ve known the funding has been a problem for years and they’ve done nothing, and they’ve known specifically about these cuts for months, and they haven’t been able to agree on the only solution on the table. They’ve proven totally unreliable. I think Rod just doesn’t want to take the heat for the cuts, and wants to be able to blame the RTA for not squandering next years money if the cuts happen.

One of my coworkers compared it to Lucy pulling the football away from Charlie Brown on Peanuts. Are we stupid enough to try to kick the ball, knowing what the governor and legislature have done in the past? I hope we don’t end up on our asses.

Comment by Carfree Chicago Thursday, Sep 13, 07 @ 4:38 pm
They should reject the money. It’s nothing but a bandaid on a gaping wound. It’ll work for about 2 seconds, but the damage’ll be worse in the long run. Ok, bad analogy, but you know…

Red Line Rider - this keeps coming up because the State refuses to address the problem. Over the past several years of “doomsday” warnings, the CTA has delayed the inevitable by spending capital funds on operations. Which led to the degradation of the system, things like a lack of new buses and trains, crumbling bridges and tracks and all that. The problem has never been solved, just punted. And this bailout is punting the problem again.
The CTA has cut costs a great deal since the auditors report came out. It renegotiated union contracts. The original doomsday scenario included cutting more routes, as well as the purple line express and Skokie Swift/Yellow Line.

CTA has fulfilled its end of the bargain. Metra and Pace are falling into the same hole the CTA’s already in.

And annon, your commute is heavily subsidized. Did you pay to have the roads you use built, or was it built by your local town, township, county, state, or by the Feds? If the government used tax dollars to build your roads, then your commute is subsidized, not to mention all the welfare dollars that big oil gets, some of which helps hold your gas prices down.

Comment by jerry 101 Thursday, Sep 13, 07 @ 4:52 pm
The problem with accepting the cash advances is that, right now, there’s no more additional funding budgeted. Just sooner, not more. If the mass transit budget plans called for specific program savings from service cuts, deferring these cuts puts the programs into a deeper hole should the GA fail to step forward. The RTA has to have a lot of faith. In a way, the Governor has put them into a trickbox.

Comment by Budget Watcher Thursday, Sep 13, 07 @ 5:33 pm
We should believe the governor’s promise of ShruteBucks and Stanleydollars. Yeah, I think not.

The way the gov’s people are pitching this, without real details or a commitment to the follow-on, it reminds me of the scene in “It’s a Wonderful Life” when old man Potter is offering to buy out George Bailey.

Comment by See Tea Eh Thursday, Sep 13, 07 @ 5:54 pm
Did the gov moonlight as the behind the scenes manager of the Cubs over the past decade or so? Seems like there is a parallel between the State of Illinois and the Cubs! Oh well, Wait Til Next Year.

Comment by A Citizen Thursday, Sep 13, 07 @ 6:03 pm
Jerry 101: the funds used to build the roads come from motor fuel taxes. It is a user tax plain and simple.

Comment by Highway Man Thursday, Sep 13, 07 @ 6:30 pm
Highway man:

True for most interstate, state and US routes, and the tollway operates with a balanced budget mostly financed by user tolls. However, some local roads and streets are also paid for with a property tax contribution in addition to MFT disbursements to the local agencies by IDOT. I pay a few hundred bucks to my township road commissioner from my property taxes each year, and he returns the favor by blading off the local gravel roads and patching the potholes, and plowing snow in the winter. He also gets a little MFT money each year and maintains and improves the roads as money allows.

It is true that highway travelers or their employers also pay the operating costs (car payments, insurance, fuel, repairs) and aren’t receiving subsidized travel unless they are riding in a government vehicle (such as the back of a squad car).

Some would also argue that the oil prices are artifically stabilized by US military presence in the Mideast, which costs a few bucks the last time I checked, as well as oil/gas industry subsidies and incentives. I just wish they would stabilize a little bit lower, for the $ we are “investing”:-) I suspect this will be a diminishing issue, possibly in as little as 15 years, as alternative technologies such as hybrid or all-electric vehicles become more popular. then the question becomes how to replace the lost tax revenue for building roads.

Comment by Six Degrees of Separation Thursday, Sep 13, 07 @ 6:47 pm
Gov seems to have a huge secret slush fund! He can come up with $10 million for Stem Cell stuff, now Twenty to Fifty something Million for Chicago Mass Transit. Why the cuts to the budget if so much slop lies around. Surely he has more “Funny Money” available to heal humanities ills. Just an observation.

Comment by A Citizen Thursday, Sep 13, 07 @ 7:18 pm
How can it be possible that money keeps magically popping out, from a devasted budget. Does the governor own his own printing presses? Or is this just dreamland, with beds of greenbacks?

Comment by Down State Dem Thursday, Sep 13, 07 @ 8:34 pm
A Citizen, as it has been made clear around here already, that money is out of “next year’s” RTA budget. All this does is increase the deficit for 2008 — unless the legislature decides to appropriate something, and either the governor signs it or is overridden.

But in that sense, funny money it is indeed. Judy Baar Topinka is not far off the mark with comparing Blago’s sleight of hand to a payday loan.

There is no slop in this state budget other than what Air Blow-Dry has been able to misdirect to his cronies. For every dime that has gone to a politically connected insider, several have been cut from something genuinely important — roads, transit, education, social services and so on. Like I said the other day, we’re already below Alabama. I don’t want public spending to get down to Brazil, where you have to live in a gated community, home school your kids and commute by helicopter to avoid being kidnapped. But really, public safety and education are about all this alleged “governor” has left to cut that isn’t under federal mandate.

I think Down State Dem’s “dreamland” concept is more accurate. The dreamland of borrowing from next year’s budget swaps this year’s purgatory for next year’s hell.

Comment by Angry Chicagoan Thursday, Sep 13, 07 @ 8:51 pm
- Angry Chicagoan -
It took you more words, but you made it a lot more clear. Thanks for the illumination. There really is No funny money nor slop - only the gov’s deception and redirection.

Comment by A Citizen Thursday, Sep 13, 07 @ 9:02 pm
“I don’t want public spending to get down to Brazil, where you have to live in a gated community, home school your kids and commute by helicopter to avoid being kidnapped.”

You automatically assume you would be one of the few in the gated community?

Comment by j Thursday, Sep 13, 07 @ 9:08 pm
What about Pace?

Has anyone heard of a “crumb” being thrown to that transit service?

Comment by HelpMeUnderstand Thursday, Sep 13, 07 @ 9:49 pm
Who said anything about automatic assumptions, - j -?

Comment by Angry Chicagoan Thursday, Sep 13, 07 @ 10:30 pm
another silly idea
loan them their own money
even the media dummies should trash this idea

Comment by Mr W.T. Rush Thursday, Sep 13, 07 @ 10:32 pm
Angry C,
Thanks for the info. The logic here seems very odd. I have finacial trouble. My company loans me my salary I would expect to get later. When that load is due my company says “Sorry we already paid you so no more cash and you owe us interest.” If I have no funding, I am in far worse shape than when I started. How deep will this hole get?

Comment by zatoichi Thursday, Sep 13, 07 @ 11:06 pm
I got a novelty catalog in the mail today that featured a “Backwards Bush” countdown watch which counts down the days until Dubya leaves office.. and can also can be set to count down to any event until 2024.
Rich, I suggest your next charity sale item be a “Backwards Blago” watch that counts down the days until he leaves office, or until the next transit “doomsday,” or the next missed state budget deadline, missed payday, etc.

Comment by Lainer Thursday, Sep 13, 07 @ 11:11 pm
In case anyone wants to start counting… there are now 1,216 days, 12 hours and about 35 minutes left in Blago’s term, assuming that he leaves office at noon on Jan. 11, 2011 (I think that’s the second Tuesday) and barring any, ahem, intervening events.

Comment by Lainer Thursday, Sep 13, 07 @ 11:31 pm
All I know is, the CTA apparently celebrated its extra cash by making rush hour blue line trains more than 20 minutes late today.

I’m just saying.

Comment by So Ill...who is now actually No Ill, and sometimes just Ill Friday, Sep 14, 07 @ 12:47 am
How can we have the Olympics if we can’t run a World Class Transit system?

Comment by Pat Ryan Friday, Sep 14, 07 @ 3:13 am
“Tidy Bowl Man - Thursday, Sep 13, 07 @ 2:44 pm:

Any idea on the source of these additional funds? ”

YOU AND ME
the TAXPAYER
if not the CITY PROPERTY TAX
than STATE INCOME TAX
or SALES TAX
or some FEE, or HIGHER TOLLS
or maybe LICENSE PLATES
but it is THROUGH TAXES!!!!!!

Comment by Pat Ryan Friday, Sep 14, 07 @ 3:15 am
Good Question:

“How can Chicago run the Olympics if it can’t run a World Class transit system?” from AON

We keep on focusing on more money, which is a current reality BUT we have not yet talked about (or Daley and Blagojevich have not yet talked about):

1. Patronage at the CTA, lots of hacks in painting, administration, construction including convicts or ex convicts, people fired from the city, political

2. A politically appointed hack board.

3. Contract cronyism at the CTA, remember that Victor Reyes stole the contract from Gery Chico to represent the French design company of the euro-chique yet expensive CTA waiting stations downtown that Daley like–lobbying for them WHILE HE WAS ON THE BOARD!!!! lots of other contracts too

4. Pensions that are sky high and you could never find in the private sector.

5. Drivers and other employees (admittedly you can get some tough passengers too) who are rude, bad drivers, ignorant etc.

6. The elimination of service that made no sense. There were cuts in Hispanic areas where an illegal probably para transit jitney system exists that you can find by going to 26th Street at starting about 4 AM and seeing people from 4AM to 7 AM riding vans with other people going to work–it exists elswhere too. When I lived in Washington DC the El Salvadorians had their own non government regulated “bus” and cab system. For all the Mexicans working at night and weekends, and yes not to stereotype–but maids, janitors, chefs, busboys, waiters, dishwashers, nannies, construction–who work nights and weekends–public transit was the way to go–they a lost a lot of ridership.

7. Too much money spent on new downtown stations, and beautification of downtown and north-south lakefront lines

8. No people who know transit.
Isn’t former Alderman Mike Wojcik–the guy who didn’t finish his Physical Education degree from UIC or Northwestern have a 6 figure job in Public Affairs–maybe his grammatically correct press releases–or IT–he probably took a lot of computer classes in PE major.
Fire Mike Wojcik before you talk about money.

9. WHAT DOES RON HUBERMAN KNOW ABOUT THE CTA OR MASS TRANSIT????!!!!!!!
Why is he so brilkiant again???!!!!
Was he the one who cleaned up the City???!!!!
Was he the one that cleaned up the Police force???!!!
What is his resume???!!!!!

10. Cal, didn’t you serve with Sam Panyototayovic in the State House–wasn’t he known as Edward Vrdolyak’s guy?? I think he was even a Republican State Rep until Clem Balanoff beat him.
How was his wife qualified to be on the CTA board???!!!!
Did she know transportation??
or finance???
or mass transit???
or computers

11. There is no VISION, NO PLAN, NO PHILOSOPHY, NO MISSION STATEMENT

12. Daley likes to go to other countries–what can we learn from other countries with good trains and buses

13. Can we privatize anything???

14. With gross mismanagement, patronage jobs, idiots like Mike Wojcik, 11th ward hacks, Victor Reyes on the board, State Reps wives on the boards (these boards make $35,000 a year with pension, and health benefits–hell–I would do it for FREE just for the PENSION AND HEALTH!!!!)
So the workers are political
The board is political
The contracts are fixed and political
The jobs are political
The pensions are huge
AND THEY WANT MORE TAXPAYER MONEY!!!
I agree with Mass Transit–I agree that low income people should have a way to get to work–WORK IS GOOD–TRAINS AND BUSES ARE GOOD–I think less gas, less cars on roads, less traffic, less congestion, less air pollution–ALL GOOD

WHAT IS BAD IS
WASTEFUL PATRONAGE
BAD PEOPLE IN JOBS
LOTS OF WASTE
IDIOTS IN JOBS
POLITICS RUNNING EVERYTHING
CRONYISM IN CONTRACTS
BAD CHOICES TO SPEND MONEY
HUGE PENSIONS
BAD EMPLOYEES
OUTDATED TECHNOLOGY
AND ALWAYS WANTING TAXPAYER BAILOUTS
OR HIGHER FARES

We need to get to the root causes. Not always just ask for money or put on a show.

Comment by Mickey Siegel Friday, Sep 14, 07 @ 3:39 am
Mickey, you make some interesting points, some good points, and some slightly off-base ones, so let me go through.

1. Patronage – would be interested to know more

2. A politically appointed hack board – from all indications, it really is poor.

3. Contract cronyism at the CTA – far more serious than the shelters, which went far too cheaply to JCDecaux given the ad revenue they’re making, is the cost of relatively simple capital contracts when they end up in a crony format. The much-needed improvements at Jackson Red Line came in at $17 million for basically putting in sheet metal that passes for a tunnel liner in the ped tunnel and then tiling it, a drop ceiling over the platform, and replacing floor and wall tiles and stairs. A disgrace when you consider that the massive reconstruction at Chicago and State –not only all the tile but multiple new escalators, elevators, street dug up, French chic entrances and a whole new concourse – came in at $28 million. Had that been bid like Jackson it would have been $100 million easy. I honestly don’t see how they even did $5 million worth of work at Jackson, even though I appreciate that it is now bright and reasonably cheerful. But sometmes it just comes down to very poor planning. Perhaps the worst sewer in CTA is Grand and State, which has a reconstruction plan that was going to cost the same as Chicago and State. Only the CTA dithered, the neighboring lot was built over, and now without that lot for construction storage they’ll have to stage the scheme by having the contractor move their stuff off the street and right out of the neighborhood every night — thereby more than doubling the cost. Of course they could just close the street for a year or two, but does anyone have the guts to do that?

4. Pensions that are sky high and you could never find in the private sector. – I know nothing about this, I assume you’re right, but bear in mind there are concessions taking place in this category.

5. Drivers and other employees – I think there’s an issue with management culture here too interacting with bad employee culture. It’s very frustrating to see the Red Line stations at Jackson, Lake and Chicago, finally built to an acceptable modern standard, but getting just filthy dirty within weeks of being finished and then staying that way. Who’s call is it not to clean anything? The NTSB just cited them for all the dirt in the tunnels.

6. The elimination of service that made no sense -– very interesting story about the jitney thing. I had no idea.

7. Too much money spent on new downtown stations, and beautification of downtown and north-south lakefront lines – see Jackson above. The improvements they’re making are entirely appropriate in my view, it’s the way some of them are being contracted that concerns me. The Superstation excepted – that is a disgrace. All they should have done there is left a hole underneath the building for such time as they get grant money to build it out. They’re effectively spending their local match for the Red Line extension on a low priority project that hasn’t got outside support.

8. No people who know transit — Agreed, but even firing all the Wojciks in the world isn’t going to fill the CTA’s shortfalls. Let’s face it – we’re cheap in Chicago, on both fares and subsidies for transit.

9. WHAT DOES RON HUBERMAN KNOW ABOUT THE CTA OR MASS TRANSIT????!!!!!!! He fixed the police force, in answer to your question. All the IT and logistics changes of recent years have come from him as far as I know. I think he’s one of the few really good managers in the city. However, IT is one of the few things the CTA already seems to be good at what with their ahead-of-the-curve approach to Smartcards. CTA needs a railroader/transit person who is an HR guy, not a cop who is a techie – but Huberman is better than anyone they’ve had in a long time and you don’t get done what he got done at CPD without knowing something about HR and business process.

10. Cal?

11. There is no VISION, NO PLAN, NO PHILOSOPHY, NO MISSION STATEMENT — I think in fairness the RTA has a good idea of what’s needed, which is to set a goal of a mass transit system that enables almost anyone between the lake and the Fox River to get by comfortably and efficiently without a car. But they need to get the politicians on board, and they still think in terms of crumbs from the table and quick fixes. And they need to be better communicators — all we get is a bunch of technical mumbo jumbo about $58 billion over 20 years, without a simple, positive, upbeat, concise statement of what it’s actually for.

12. Daley abroad – we can learn a lot, but all Daley seems to get is the architecture. OK, I’ll give him a pointer, he doesn’t even have to go abroad. San Francisco/Oakland — regional rapid rail that averages 47 mph including stops. Washington DC — deep tunnel subway like London that averages about 30. Paris, both regional rail AND subway in the same city. (And of course all three of the above also have commuter rail.) Chicago, broken down system that’s slower than riding a bike.

13. Can we privatize anything??? – Bus shelters, check. The trouble is, it’s easier to privatize stuff that makes money. See the bus shelters for reference. They let that one go for way too cheap. You could also privatize the whole thing and run it under contract with a preset subsidy, but as Metronet’s bankruptcy in London shows, that’s a risky strategy too – and expensive (the London PPP tube contracts total $60 billion).
14. Again, even if you get rid of all the cronyism and waste you haven’t fully solved the problem. Not even close. Greater Chicago is cheap with transit, both at the farebox and in subsidies.

Comment by Angry Chicagoan Friday, Sep 14, 07 @ 8:09 am
Carfree Chicago…”annon” here & read your reply. What subsides am I missing. I bought a truck, paid taxes when I bought, keep it insured,licensed properly, paying just under $3.00 a gallon gas, handle my own repairs etc., etc. If a train ran past work I’d take it….but it doesn’t so I’ll keep driving up & down those roads my tax dollars help paid for & did so out of my earnings & my hip-pocket !!

Comment by annon Friday, Sep 14, 07 @ 5:34 pm