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* Here’s my Sun-Times column in full…
With all the legitimate anger over the months-long mass transit funding crisis, Chicagoans are naturally looking for someone to blame, even if the state’s leaders took a big step toward solving the crisis Thursday.
Here’s a list of those who have caused your pain.
* Mayor Daley: Loves to blame Springfield for the CTA’s budget shortfall and service problems, but appointed a political hack to run the agency (Frank Kruesi) who made a complete mess of things and alienated just about everyone at the state capital. He claims to be a top-notch big-city manager but allowed the transit system to decay almost beyond repair. If he worked as hard on fixing the CTA as he has bringing the Olympics to Chicago, there might not be a crisis.
* Gov. Blagojevich: Held the CTA bailout (and CTA riders) hostage for months so he could win passage of a long list of other priorities. Desperately tried to shift every bit of blame from himself to the General Assembly for failing to come up with a solution. Hasn’t proposed a real solution himself.
* Senate President Emil Jones: Until this week, refused to even call a CTA funding bill for a vote. Is allied with Gov. Blagojevich and has eagerly cooperated with the governor’s scheme to hold the transit money hostage for new casinos, a capital plan and expanded health coverage.
* House Speaker Michael Madigan: Battled Jones and Blagojevich every step of the way. Insisted that the CTA and RTA bailouts not be tied to anything else, which has held up progress on everything because he has not yet agreed to any resolutions of those aforementioned issues. Madigan ignored pleas from former CTA boss Kruesi a few years ago to find a way to inject more money into the transit system mainly because he personally despised Kruesi.
* Many Downstate legislators: After Chicago legislators agreed to force Chicago-based ComEd’s parent company Exelon to subsidize lower rates for Downstate Ameren’s customers, many Downstate legislators showed their gratitude by refusing to support a mass transit proposal that is funded solely by the Chicago region yet funnels millions to Downstate mass transit districts. Some are professional Chicago haters, others wanted to force Speaker Madigan to agree to a statewide capital plan. Many simply can’t understand the importance of public transit because they’ve never used public transit and don’t know anyone who has.
* Most legislative Republicans: May have tried to create even more political and governmental chaos for Democrats by refusing to support a transit bailout. Some openly welcomed a CTA “doomsday” scenario, claiming the CTA and RTA were bluffing. Reflexively believed a sales tax increase of a penny on a $4 purchase to fund an absolutely vital service is excessive taxation.
* Rank and file Chicago legislators: Perhaps the least to blame, but who are most in danger of voter retaliation during next month’s Democratic primaries. Have been slammed by millions of dollars in taxpayer-funded advertising urging them to vote for the transit bailout even though they all supported it to begin with. Have subsequently been inundated with calls, letters and e-mails from angry constituents who don’t understand that they are on the same side. They succeeded in forcing Senate President Jones and Gov. Blagojevich to drop their gamesmanship and run the bailout bill without an agreement on more casinos or anything else.
I hope this helps.
* Question: Did I miss anyone? What would you add to the column?
posted by Rich Miller
Friday, Jan 11, 08 @ 10:31 am
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Yes, I’d like to blame the Chicago mainstream media too. Doomsday this… Doomsday that. Man, oh man, did these big media types buy into the HYPE ‘hook line and sinker’.
Comment by The 'Broken Heart' of Rogers Park Friday, Jan 11, 08 @ 10:35 am
Rich Miller - Whose incessant coverage of the action has prohibited legislative leaders from meeting behind closed doors to smoke cigars, pat each other on the back, and trade favors for votes. His so-called “coverage” only furthers the democratic process and rule by mob. Plus, he is a Sox fan.
Comment by GoBearsss Friday, Jan 11, 08 @ 10:35 am
LOL. Thanks.
Comment by Rich Miller Friday, Jan 11, 08 @ 10:36 am
Blago should be at the top of the list.
Comment by Spending money we don't have Friday, Jan 11, 08 @ 10:42 am
BTW - I completely agree with having Mayor Daley up there first.
But what about all those suburban counties? Or cook county itself? Or those suburbs that depend on mass transit for economic benefits in their downtowns?
Washington, D.C. makes all those surrounding communities pay into the pot based on the proportion of their riders. I guess we do that in Illinois with the sales tax.
But, when RTA capital starts coming up - we need to look to those people first to see what they can come up with.
Comment by GoBearsss Friday, Jan 11, 08 @ 10:43 am
I don’t have anyone else to add, but I think that there’s some language that needs to be added to Rod’s paragraph regarding his surprise amendatory language for the transit bill. While helping out seniors is hard to knock, we can certainly rip him for the manner in which he did it. Why did this have to be some huge surprise? Can he not do anything in a normal fashion? His desire to appear to be the savior of all humanity is getting a bit tired.
Comment by BigDog Friday, Jan 11, 08 @ 10:46 am
BigDog, the column had to be submitted before the governor’s announcement. We were only able to change it a little bit afterwards.
Comment by Rich Miller Friday, Jan 11, 08 @ 10:48 am
* House Speaker Michael Madigan: Battled Jones and Blagojevich every step of the way. Insisted that the CTA and RTA bailouts not be tied to anything else, which has held up progress on everything because he has not yet agreed to any resolutions of those aforementioned issues. Madigan ignored pleas from former CTA boss Kruesi a few years ago to find a way to inject more money into the transit system mainly because he personally despised Kruesi.
And thank goodness Madgin fought that “battle.” Kruesi never wanted to take on the unions and cut pension and health care costs. Madigan-Hamos-Cullerton did.
Blaggodiots and Jones wanted to carve a bigger hole in the growing budget deficit.
The battle also provided some relief for the suburbs who need their own road money.
The battle also saw the gamblers’ rampage brought to a standstill and avoided construction program wrecked by the Administration.
Just like the electric rate “battle” — common sense beats the razzle dazzle.
Hmmmm wonder if it will be learning experience for anyone? Bill, ya out there buddy?
Comment by DumberThanYouThink Friday, Jan 11, 08 @ 10:49 am
I thought your article was pretty good, although I think Kreusi wasn’t as bad a guy as you and the legislators paint him to be. I think you also missed a big bad guy in this picture - the federal government. They provide massive funds for highways, but their support of public transportation falls far short. The feds should come up with all of the capital needs, if only to reduce reliance on highways, reduce congestion and pollution, and save big transportation dollars in both the short and long term. Our congressional delegation should be ashamed for their lackluster delivery.
Comment by phocion Friday, Jan 11, 08 @ 11:00 am
WOW. I am impressed. I’ve been in the dome through this whole thing, and I pretty much agree with your COMPLETE statement. I would put Blago at the top, but thats the only difference. I am a downstater at heart, but I understand the importance of the RTA and CTA, but sorry Rich, I just dont believe the “doomsday” senario was going to be as bad as they said it was going to be. Ive seen the numbers, and the Transpo folk are inflating the situation way beyond what it really would have been. After saying that, if I was a downstater, I would have climbed on this in a heartbeat, one for political gain IF there is ever a capital program (I was there for you during the CTA RTA vote, so give me my projects) , and because they paid for it up there. DOwnstate isnt going to pay for the bail out so why did they care? The next bill would have had us chiping in. I know they were holding out for a capital bill, but they (Repubs) are fools if they think they can trust the GOv to release the funding to them after the capital bill passes anyway. It will cost more votes to release the projects. Besides I think a capital bill =s Blago cutting ribbons all over the state and will help his reelection bid. Repubs keep giving this guy air to breath with stuff like this capital program. If BLago gets capital bill, he is going to take $1 billion of it and put it to the operations budget. Why is this important? Because, we are already sitting on $1.5 billion in bills, by the end of the fiscal, we will be $2.5 billion in the hole. MARK MY WORDS Rich, $2.5 billion with a billion in bills.
Comment by Moderate REpub Friday, Jan 11, 08 @ 11:08 am
Chicago as this is a chicago transit authority. The city and burbs should have worked something out without the state getting involved
Comment by Wumpus Friday, Jan 11, 08 @ 11:08 am
I know that was a long response, and i don’t check for Sps, so pardon the terrible spelling and grammer, but I wanted to add one more thing. Another example of what I mean by Repubs giving the Gov air to breath, is the bonding bill when he first came to the state house. He backfilled a ton of that cash into the operating budget so he could expand programs without showing a deficit. The speaker agreed to his budget this year becuase the speaker knew it was going to have a huge hole in it at the end of the year. The Gov took $500 million and expanded health care anyway. It puts the SPeaker in the cat bird seat. Thats why he doesnt want a capital bill, because it will give the Gov an out on what is sure to be a HUGE budget hole at the end of the year.
Comment by Moderate REpub Friday, Jan 11, 08 @ 11:14 am
OK, so who are the heroes in all this (if any)? Are we all from now on going to use the “bailout” term to describe every new government funding initiative: school funding is an “education bailout”; health care reform is a “physician bailout”; road funding is a “highway bailout”; Reg and Reg funding is a “licensing bailout”, etc.?
Comment by Legal Eagle Friday, Jan 11, 08 @ 11:19 am
Don’t forget the jackasses voters who fail to hold those jackasses public servants accountable for running the ship of state aground.
– SCAM
Comment by so-called "Austin Mayor" Friday, Jan 11, 08 @ 11:32 am
Rich,
Sorry about the name calling. My keyboard was set to subliminal
– SCAM
Comment by so-called "Austin Mayor" Friday, Jan 11, 08 @ 11:33 am
Dumber - your boss didn’t do anything to get the pension reforms done.
He just stalled and made the state bail transit out for years.
Your boss is one of the primary reasons nothing has gotten done for transit over the past decade. You can’t claim victory now, or ever.
And everybody will love the MAdigan electric rate increase when it pops up in a couple years.
Comment by GoBearsss Friday, Jan 11, 08 @ 11:33 am
Julie Hamos is the real hero. She finally beat her Speaker into submission to support doing something.
Comment by GoBearsss Friday, Jan 11, 08 @ 11:35 am
Yes, you placed all the blame for Kruesi on Mayor Daley, and only indrectly on Kruesi himself. Once appointed it was his responsiblity to steer the ship and avoid the icebergs. Instead he was always scramblng to rearrange the deck chairs after the damage was too often already done.
You also failed to mention one of the biggest culprits in developng this “mass transit funding crisis, and that was the past politically appointed leadership of the CTA Pension Plan, which operated remotely outside of Kruesi’s control.
In concert with management these disinterested incompetents allowed the plan to go rediculously under-funded while at the same time selecting their investment advisors based primarily on the level of perks provided such as golf outings, fine dining, and sportng event and concert skybox invtations.
These noble “fiduciaries” fidled while Rome continued to burn around them. The pension crisis did not develop overnight, and this runaway freight train was spooted careening downhill years ago, but none of the engineers had ever been trained as a brakeman.
If you look carefully at the distribution of the funding from this sales tax increase, look how much is being proportionately allocated to the pension plan, while the full breadth and scope of the capital needs will still go unfunded, and unnecessary but politically sensitive operations will continue.
The pension plan must now have the new parameters dictated to them by legislation, where in any other private sector operation the “trustees” would have been unceremoniiously sacked and then sued.
I think that you may have also inapproprately characterized Madigan’s role of ignoring pleas from former CTA boss Kruesi a few years ago to find a way to inject more money into the transit system, mainly because he personally despised Kruesi. While this may be somewhat true, it was Kruesi hmself that engendered the mstrust of not just Madigan, but also a suspicous very broad bi-partisan contingent of the legislature, when at the time he was down there beggng for “urgently needed funding” he was also caught tryng to surreptitiously sweeten his own pension through legislation.
Why he was not immediately tossed overboard at that time by the Mayor we will never know, but that single act sealed the fate of the CTA funding imbroglio for years to come.
Comment by Inside Track Friday, Jan 11, 08 @ 11:46 am
Daley appointed him and stuck by him. Daley gets the blame.
Comment by Rich Miller Friday, Jan 11, 08 @ 11:51 am
Rich, can we send all of these people on a ski trip with Senator Rutherford? I think that treatment would solve most of the problems at the Capitol.
Comment by S. Illinois Friday, Jan 11, 08 @ 11:56 am
A gutsy piece, calling these guys out!
The order appears correct to me, though I think the Speaker might be tied with Blago. The Mayor deserves his top billing, not only for Kruesi, but also for turning CTA into a Machine patronage and financial playground.
SCAM is right on the money - we keep voting these guys in, even as we complain about what they do. If you vote to let foxes run the coop, don’t complain about dead chickens.
Comment by Bubs Friday, Jan 11, 08 @ 11:57 am
The VOTERS for responding like trained poodles to the biscuit of “no taxes.” Government services cost money, that money comes from taxes. You get what you pay for. You shouldn’t expect something for nothing.
POLITICAL “LEADERS” from both parties for leading the voters to believe they can have government services and not pay for them.
The endless stream of financial crises (health care, capitol projects, CTA, education, pensions, etc.) comes from the so-called structural deficit which results from expecting to get more than you pay for. What good is a leader if they lead you over a cliff?
Madigan has tried to start the process of turning us around, fiscally. But, from a political standpoint, unless the rest of the “leaders” (R & D) follow suit, it goes nowhere (which is better than over the cliff, but not by much).
Comment by Pot calling kettle Friday, Jan 11, 08 @ 12:07 pm
Austin beat me too it — voters who knowingly vote for the likes of Daley, Stroger, Blago (though he arguably was the lesser evil in that race) shouldn’t be pointing fingers.
Comment by lake county democrat Friday, Jan 11, 08 @ 12:07 pm
Anyone who voted for these people.
Comment by Squideshi Friday, Jan 11, 08 @ 12:20 pm
Daley deserves to be number one. Why anyone still thinks he is an uber-skilled manager (different from a politician, of course) is beyond me. Why does he get a pass among so many, even those transit riders and fans who rightly blame Springfield and the feds for much of this mess?
Comment by tom73 Friday, Jan 11, 08 @ 12:22 pm
So how is it Madigan’s fault to despise a political hack that couldn’t do his job?
And how is it Madigan’s fault to avoid playing games with Emil and Rod over their masstransitchicagocasinocapitalbillbackscratching Act?
Comment by VanillaMan Friday, Jan 11, 08 @ 12:31 pm
I don’t think you can let local suburban republican officials and RTA off the hook. There’s a significant increase in resources and influence to the collar counties in the bill, and yet it took diverting transportation dollars to public safety to get any meaningful suburban republican votes. From my perspective, somebody at RTA misread the politics and thought he would have broad-based suburban R support if he gave them what they wanted on transit, but instead they preferred to play their leverage to bail DuPage republicans out of a political hole.
Comment by nickname of the day Friday, Jan 11, 08 @ 12:35 pm
Vanilla: Should Madigan seek to punish CTA riders because Frankie was a hack? The problem with these people is they don’t know when politics needs to give way to public service. Idealistic, perhaps, but the truth.
Comment by tom73 Friday, Jan 11, 08 @ 12:41 pm
Daley is a terrible manager, and he had a ton to do with this problem. The appointment of Kruesi, refusing to fire Kruesi, the “superstation,” etc. Why, again, do we need a superstation thats running on the same tracks as the blue and orange lines? What is it for?
Suburban officials who reflexively fight the city over everything, even though this is/was a threat to them as much as it was to the city. Those suburbs need the Metra and Pace to operate just as much as the city needs CTA.
And, when it comes to capital dollars for expansion, the suburbs need money more than the city. If the entire region would work together, we’d all benefit.
Hamos and Ron Huberman are the heroes in this. Huberman did everything he was asked to do and more (starting the elimination of slow zones. Kreusi said it would take 10 years, Hubs is eliminating them in less than 18 months) in order to get transit back on track in this city.
Big props for Ron Huberman!!
I’d vote for Huberman for mayor at this point. He’s the only competent person around.
Which means that he’ll be gone within 18 months.
Comment by jerry 101 Friday, Jan 11, 08 @ 12:49 pm
===I’d vote for Huberman for mayor at this point. He’s the only competent person around.
Which means that he’ll be gone within 18 months.===
LOL. Good point.
Comment by Rich Miller Friday, Jan 11, 08 @ 12:53 pm
And the most egregious is Gov. Blago followed by Mr. Huff and Puff Jones who screwed up the legislative fix for the CTA, RTA, METRA and PACE. The discussion sounded like the legislative leaders had never even thought of a subsidy for something that is so underfunded and so mismanaged - well at least the CTA part.
Then the audacity to say it should be tied to gambling increases in the state. How stupid do they think we are?
Doug Dobmeyer
Comment by Doug Dobmeyer Friday, Jan 11, 08 @ 1:00 pm
{- Rich Miller - Friday, Jan 11, 08 @ 11:51 am:
Daley appointed him and stuck by him. Daley gets the blame.}
True enough but at some point after making an appointment you have to assume the appointee is capable, and is doing ther job. When they do not, it is only your fault for stickng by them.
Upon reconsderation however perhaps you could include an honorable mention for the leadershp of the Amalgamated Transit Union who appoints a representatve number of the pension plan “trustees”, and other labor leaders who myopically negotiated unsustainable wages, benefits, and most importantly work rules which may have gotten them re-elected to their comfortable posts again and again in the short term, but in the long run helped to bankrupt the system by death through a thousand cuts.
Comment by Inside Track Friday, Jan 11, 08 @ 1:21 pm
Inside Track, I usually don’t like to blame unions for negotiating fantastic contracts. It’s not like they held a gun to anyone’s head. I tend to blame management for that stuff.
Also, the unions did negotiate some significant pension givebacks in this package.
Comment by Rich Miller Friday, Jan 11, 08 @ 1:24 pm
Overheard in a Captiol elevator: “I would have gotten away with it too if it wasn’t for that meddling Capitol Fax guy!”
Seriously, your assessment is right on target. No additions needed.
Comment by jwscott72 Friday, Jan 11, 08 @ 1:49 pm
I have to agree with Squideshi, anyone who voted for these people.
Comment by JakeCP Friday, Jan 11, 08 @ 2:23 pm
I agree with Rich, as the Mayor Daley points out, the unions did give a bit back out of good faith. Ooh, Metra will still raise rates. So that is an increase in taxes and metra fares…yay! http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/736957,metra11108.article
Comment by Wumpus Friday, Jan 11, 08 @ 2:43 pm
How about blaming the CTA, especially its Board?
But while we are giving the seven members of the CTA Board their just desserts, lets not forget that Mayor Daley appoints four, Carole Brown (Chair), Rev. Charles E. Robinson, Alejandro Silva and Henry T. Chandler, Jr. who were all approved by the Governor and Chicago City Council. And the Governor’s appointees, Susan A. Leonis (Vice-Chair), Cynthia A. Panayotovich and Nicholas C. Zagotta were all approved by Mayor Daley and the Illinois Senate.
Emil Jones loves to rail against mis-management at the CTA, but if I were running against Sen. Rickey Hendon, CHAIR of the Senate Executive Appointments Committee, I’d be looking to see how he voted on the motions to approve these board members, as well as other various appointees by the Governor. As chair, Hendon can kill any appointment, and he should be held accountable for the mopes and crooks that sailed through his committee.
Comment by Yellow Dog Democrat Friday, Jan 11, 08 @ 3:33 pm
Wumpus - the City and state did work something out - SB 572/HB656. They both agreed on its components long ago. It was the GA that would not approve their agreement - until yesterday.
Comment by Transit Supporter Friday, Jan 11, 08 @ 3:35 pm
{ Rich Miller - Friday, Jan 11, 08 @ 1:24 pm:
Inside Track, I usually don’t like to blame unions for negotiating fantastic contracts. It’s not like they held a gun to anyone’s head. I tend to blame management for that stuff.}
Rich then whom do you blame for the current so called “mortgage crisis”?
Not all lenders were “predatory lenders”, and indvduals sometimes have to take responsbilty for themselves. If it looks too good to be true, then it probably is.
The Trustees are fduciaries not just for the partcipants, but also for the Pension Plan itself. Its nice to negotate great benefits, but if the benefits are far greater than the plan assets can sustain, then what have you actually bargained for?
The Pension Plan is insolvent, and has been for years now.
Comment by Inside Track Saturday, Jan 12, 08 @ 12:07 am
From a policy perspective, won’t seniors increased ridership lead to more Federal dollars for Illinois because Federal subsidies are given out based on overall ridership?
Comment by Moe Saturday, Jan 12, 08 @ 5:20 pm