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* Late yesterday, I told you that Rep. Julie Hamos was hinting at possible changes to the governor’s amendatory veto of the mass transit bailout proposal, or at least a trailer bill. She opened up a bit more to ABC-7…
Hamos says that what she is willing to do is possibly alter Governor Blagojevich’s proposal and maybe give free rides to seniors at a certain income level or giving free rides to seniors during off-peak hours.
The Constitution doesn’t specifically stop legislators from rewriting an amendatory veto, but it does allow the governor to decide if the changes conform to his suggestions in the orginal AV. Then again, they might just run a companion bill that contains the changes.
* The Metra and CTA fare hikes could give the General Assembly some political cover for limiting the senior discounts, without completely doing away with them…
But free rides for senior citizens — a benefit that could kick in as soon as April 1 — may require a “modest fare increase” in 2009, said Ron Huberman, Chicago Transit Agency’s president.
* And this little revelation doesn’t help the governor’s case much….
Chicago Transit Authority president Ron Huberman says Governor Rod Blagojevich never discussed plans with him to offer free rides on public transportation to senior citizens.
* Without a doubt the most underreported aspect of why the mass transit bailout was having so much trouble in both legislative chambers was the Realtors Association’s lobbying effort against the real estate transfer tax. The bill allows the Chicago city council to approve the tax hike, but the Realtors and many legislators (including Rep. Kevin McCarthy) were worried that the idea could spread to the suburbs. Not only that, but with the real estate crisis going on right now, the Realtors believed this was the wrong tax hike at the wrong time.
* Even so, most aldermen knew about the proposal, or at least should have known, so their surprise is a bit disingenuine…
Chicago aldermen who pushed Springfield for a Chicago Transit Authority rescue plan are close to getting what they wanted. But if the deal receives final approval from the General Assembly this week, they’ll also get a political hot potato some had not bargained for: a vote to raise a tax that’s triggered whenever a house or other property is sold. […]
“I won’t vote in favor of it, but I can’t vote against it,” Ald. Bernard Stone (50th) said Monday. “I’ll just walk off the [council] floor.”
Spoken with true courage, I’m sure. Stone is up for reelection as ward committeeman next month, and it shows. His opponent, Sen. Ira Silverstein, supported the bailout bill.
* More from the Sun-Times, whose headline was: “‘Mad as hell’: CTA realty tax ripped“…
“It’s going to be a very difficult thing to ask people who have just gotten through voting for our budget to come back and increase the tax on an industry that is already crippled,” said Ald. Pat O’Connor (40th), the mayor’s unofficial City Council floor leader.
“People are not buying and selling homes right now. They’re losing homes. If the market is going to be dead for as long as they’re saying it’s going to be — at least another year — this is not a tax that’s going to perform the way they need it to perform. It might be better to look elsewhere.”
* But…
Ald. Richard Mell (33rd) predicted that aldermen would “swallow hard” and approve the increase to keep CTA buses and trains rolling. […]
Ald. Ricardo Munoz (22nd) predicted that the transfer tax would pass with more votes to spare than Daley’s property tax increase. That 29-to-21 vote was reminiscent of Council Wars, the 1980s power struggle that also split aldermen 29 to 21.
“You don’t actually feel this tax until you buy or sell something. … If it’s going to help the CTA and help seniors get free rides, it should be an easy” vote, Munoz said.
* More transit stuff, compiled by Kevin…
* Rich Miller: Governor’s new transit plan proves it’s always about him
* Editorial: Age-based freebies unfair
* Jefferson County drives toward public transit
* Blagojevich has power to amend, laugh
* Seniors can only get free rides in their hometowns
posted by Rich Miller
Tuesday, Jan 15, 08 @ 9:44 am
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I think they will probably run a companion bill that puts an income cap on seniors, and claim it will save money (it won’t save more than $500k, I am sure, since wealthy people don’t make up the bulk of those riding transit).
I don’t think they would change the existing bill and challenge Blago to certify it. Changing it just makes the bill void, in essence. The only reason to do that is to try and get Blago to veto it - which would be a big blow to his political future, but would also jeopardize all those people up for election in a few weeks having to answer about why they let doomsday happen in order to let Madigan have a victory for himself.
Comment by GoBearsss Tuesday, Jan 15, 08 @ 9:50 am
If I understand the bill there will be a tax hike in the chicago area. 50 millions of that hike is being diverted to donwstate for the free ride program. If I have that correct, I am stunned that no one up north is complaining that they are being taxed and the money is being diverted downstate. Especially where the Gov says his estimate, for what it worth, is that the rogram will cost roughly 1 mil donwstate. So he is giving 49 mil extra to donwstate pulled exclusively from a chicago area tax. Yet no one who represnts those being taxed is concerned about this transfer? I keep waiting to hear local reps say they can not support this portion of the AV as it unfairly takes a bug chunk a cash from the local hike and shifts it downstate.
Comment by Ghost Tuesday, Jan 15, 08 @ 10:00 am
I believe what Stone meant to say was that “I can’t vote against it, I’ll just sleep through it.”
Comment by Juice Tuesday, Jan 15, 08 @ 10:10 am
“50 millions of that hike is being diverted to donwstate for the free ride program. ”
That’s incorrect. The $50 million comes from State GRF.
Comment by GoBearsss Tuesday, Jan 15, 08 @ 10:10 am
ahh ok…so where did GRF get the 50 mil from? We have 1.7 bil in unpaid medical bills, which the Gov hopes to increase, so where are we getting the 50 mil for the Downstate portion of this ticket. Just more spending without money. The GA needs to have some backbone and pull this portion of the AV at least until there is real talk about how its going to be paid for.
GRF is not a magic pot, its a shallow well that has run dry.
Comment by Ghost Tuesday, Jan 15, 08 @ 10:17 am
I don’t mind giving free rides to seniors of any age and I an already strategizing how not to get hit by the sales tax to the max possible by not buying stuff here.
The problem is that handing out random freebies
like free rides to seniors works against making sense of our chaotic tax system, a convoluted patchwork of breaks for the favored, including corporate entities, for the wealthy, and for the
so-called poor. The burden falls most heavily on the middle class, which also is looking at increases in unemployment, a huge increase in wholesale prices and probable increased inflation,
a loss in home values, and increased health care costs.
Of course, our legislators gave themselves a huge raise this year, so they are not hurting. Ms. Hamos, for example, will so not feel the pinch of any sales tax increases unlike many Cook County residents. And CTA employees, especially the higher-ups, will retain their luxurious pensions and free lifetime health care despite a bit of tinkering with the pension rules.
It really is time for government to go on a diet.
Even the most passive middle-income taxpayer is likely to resist getting taxed more and more for government bureaucracies to live the good life if the economy sinks into recession. Or maybe not. Illinois residents are pretty gullible. But we don’t need to be.
Comment by Cassandra Tuesday, Jan 15, 08 @ 10:33 am
The $50 million had not revenue source. Just part of the $150 million in State money that had no revenue source.
It wasn’t part of the AV. It has been in the bill all along.
Comment by GoBearsss Tuesday, Jan 15, 08 @ 10:36 am
Why does McCarthy scurry around to find these outlandish excuses for his votes? He should just admit that he always does exactly what Rod and Jay tell him to do regardless of what the issue is.
Comment by Bill Tuesday, Jan 15, 08 @ 10:46 am
===I am stunned that no one up north is complaining that they are being taxed and the money is being diverted downstate.===
The $50 mil is a drop in the bucket compared to the rest of the revenue we send downstate. We’re used to it. Its the cost of getting downstate dems on the bill. Its a lot cheaper than a capital bill!
Comment by Bill Tuesday, Jan 15, 08 @ 10:53 am
=== I an already strategizing how not to get hit by the sales tax===
Good work, Cassie! That extra penny on every $4 is an outrage! I’d drive to Iowa to shop if I were you.
Comment by Bill Tuesday, Jan 15, 08 @ 10:57 am
The Tribune’s Stacy St. Clair pointed out in her front page story yesterday that the political wattage among seniors for the transit freebie may be fairly dimmer than supposed, and may provide the legislature flexibility to impose a means test on the perk.
Comment by David Ormsby Tuesday, Jan 15, 08 @ 10:57 am
Cassandra @10:30,
If you can’t afford an extra quarter for every $100 you spend, you’ve got bigger problems than trying to figure out where to shop. Besides, how much extra gasoline will you burn to shop outside the six counties?
And Julie Hamos is one of the few, if not the only legislator who comes through this megillah with clean hands and even an ounce of leadership.
Comment by Nort'sider Tuesday, Jan 15, 08 @ 11:05 am
I think I just read that the head of the CTA is already calling for a fair increase even if the sales and real estate transfer tax increases are implemented. Nah, that was just a hallucination.
Comment by Garp Tuesday, Jan 15, 08 @ 11:05 am
===He should just admit that he always does exactly what Rod and Jay tell him to do regardless of what the issue is.===
Rare clarity, Bill? lol
Comment by Rich Miller Tuesday, Jan 15, 08 @ 11:20 am
the 150 mill in unspent revenue is a myth if we have 1.7 billion in unpaid bills.
Comment by Ghost Tuesday, Jan 15, 08 @ 12:04 pm
Actually, I don’t have to drive anywhere to lower my sales taxes. I can be much more attentive to where I buy things available on the internet, for example. I can simply decide not to buy certain things…a little personal boycott. No problem there.
But that’s not the point. The point is we, the real middle class, are getting pinched from all directions. Local property taxes are going up. The cost of food is going up. Health insurance premiums are gong up. Gas, heating, and so on.
Ms. Hamos and her wealthy political pals who have cooked up this transit plan are pretty much immune from these increases, and that’s not just because of her huge legislative pay raise. And they have
said virtually nothing about reforming the CTA’s lavish pay practices and the huge crony-ridden
CTA bureaucracy.
We need a tax decrease at this point. A little tax
increase here, a little tax increase there (accompanied by absolutely no, never, ever tax decreases), inflation, gax price increases, food prices increases, health premium increases. Unless you live in the real world, you just don’t see it.
And most of our legislators do not live in the real world. Nor do the wealthy or the so-called poor.
Government, again, needs to go on a diet like the
forced diet many citizens are already on.
Random tax breaks (like free rides for seniors) just aren’t going to do it.
Comment by Cassandra Tuesday, Jan 15, 08 @ 12:18 pm
Rich –
You might want to open a topic on Illinois Belt tightening — if any.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120036069725690073.html?mod=hpp_us_pageone
is a precursor of what is happening in other states. Illinois is not mentioned. Retail sales nationwide were down in December, and the State loves the sales tax. Personal Income is not growing much if any.
I don’t know where Governor Johnny Appleseed is going to get the money to throw around. And as the article mentions, when States are short they cut local programs and/or pass responsibility down.
I know that some of your readers would rather pull their toenails out than read anything written in the Wall Street Journal, but the days of reckoning are coming and even a Democrat victory in November will see hollowed out Federal revenues.
Comment by Truthful James Tuesday, Jan 15, 08 @ 12:18 pm
” … Mell (33rd) predicted that aldermen would “swallow hard” and approve the increase … ‘
Mell is right except for the swallowing hard part. Daley is not feigning surprise, he’s in favor, his Legion of the Rubber Stamp will roll over:
” … it would boost the Chicago real estate transfer tax by up to 40 percent — an increase Daley said on Saturday that he’s agreed to … ” (Sun-Times)
Comment by Hugh Tuesday, Jan 15, 08 @ 12:24 pm
Here’s what I’d do:
Run a motion to accept the gov’s amendatory veto verbatim in the house.
If it fails, blame the Governor, especially if Hoffman, McCarthy, Granberg and Phelps are all no’s. Then run one with an income limit creating a bipartisan task force to work on further expansions.
You’ve got to have the second one ready just in case the first fails in the Senate anyway. Remember, the house has a two-vote margin, the Senate has no room for error.
I WOULD NEVER EVEN CONSIDER A TRAILER BILL.
A trailer bill just creates an opening for more games by the Governor.
Comment by Yellow Dog Democrat Tuesday, Jan 15, 08 @ 12:25 pm
and by games, I mean the Gov. agreeing to sign the trailer bill and then flip-flopping and vetoing it.
Remember, like the budget.
Comment by Yellow Dog Democrat Tuesday, Jan 15, 08 @ 12:26 pm
it appears the Governor may have turned lemons into rotten fruit
Comment by anon Tuesday, Jan 15, 08 @ 12:46 pm
YDD,
I hate to split hairs but the governor never agreed to the budget. He was excluded by Mike the Almighty. It was Emil who promised to override the Gov’s veto and then flipped and wouldn’t call it.
Same result!
Comment by Bill Tuesday, Jan 15, 08 @ 12:50 pm
It’s never a good time according to an industry about to be hit by a tax for said tax.
The aldermen better be ready and willing to jack up the transfer tax, and those realtors should be happy to have it, because transit is what makes them all this money. All the gentrification in Chicago follows major transit lines. Keeping them running is what causes them to roll in the huge profits.
Who would pay half a million dollars for a Logan Square condo if there wasn’t that fun little blue line stop in the middle of the neighborhood? No one. The neighborhood would be just as run down as west Humboldt.
The realtors are a disease.
Comment by jerry 101 Tuesday, Jan 15, 08 @ 1:18 pm
The Legislators did not give themselves “a huge raise”. They got a partial, insufficient COLA adjustment after no increases for ten years, which was recommended by the compensation board. Legislators now receive a whopping $60,000 a year for what has become a full-time job for the good ones, who all could do much better in the private sector. I work with several of them. They work evenings and weekends, as well as office hours all day, when they are not in Springfield. Heck, I pay my executive secretary more than $60,000. County Commissioners, Chicago Aldermen, and Congressmen all have salaries of more than twice that. The good legislators must be either independently wealthy, double-dip, or have a spouse who makes a lot. We should stop double-dipping, and double the legislative salary, and we’d get a better group, from top to bottom! (This would also be a good blog topic.)
Comment by Legal Eagle Tuesday, Jan 15, 08 @ 1:28 pm
From Crain’s:
==Amended transit bill appears seen for approval
By Greg Hinz
Jan. 15, 2008
(Crain’s) — Despite more than a little grumbling, the pieces appear to be falling into place for final approval of the public transit bailout plan as amended by Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who wants free rides for senior citizens on all Metra, Pace and Chicago Transit Authority buses and trains.
In the House, state Rep. Julie Hamos of Evanston, the point-person for House Democrats on transit issues, filed a motion Tuesday morning to approve the bill as altered by the governor.
Ms. Hamos declined to say whether she thinks the simple majority of 60 votes needed for final approval will be there, but said lawmakers have no other option if severe service cuts and fare hikes scheduled to take effect next week are to be avoided.
“We have to pass a bill,” Ms. Hamos said. “It’s a hard sell. Nobody likes it right now.”
But the three-fifths vote needed to override the governor’s amendatory veto is an even harder sell, she said.==
Comment by anon Tuesday, Jan 15, 08 @ 1:38 pm
Yeah, I saw that. Nothing really new there.
Comment by Rich Miller Tuesday, Jan 15, 08 @ 1:40 pm
Bill -
You’re right to point out McCarthy. If he, Hoffman, Granberg and Phelps vote No on the AV and it fails, the Gov will wear the jacket for the transit Doomsday, and rightly so.
Comment by Yellow Dog Democrat Tuesday, Jan 15, 08 @ 1:41 pm
interesting report from the AP… “Not all seniors citizens back the governor’s proposal to offer free public transportation to those 65 and older in Illinois.”
Comment by Ghost Tuesday, Jan 15, 08 @ 1:59 pm
I wrote this on QOTD, but probably better here:
I think I would change the AV language to be permissive rather than mandatory. If the Gov agrees, then all’s well: he still looks like he is doing seniors a favor, the transit districts can use their discretion as to freebies, and the sales tax increase goes ahead. If the Gov disagrees with the change, the he looks obstructionist on his own suggestion, the bill is vetoed, and whose fault it that?
Comment by anon Tuesday, Jan 15, 08 @ 2:52 pm
I mean it, (Unindicted Official) A-Rod: We’ll give you one year off your federal sentence if you resign as governor today. Better hurry, as this deal won’t be on the table forever.
Comment by The Mad Hatter Tuesday, Jan 15, 08 @ 3:00 pm
Mad Hatter -
My guess is that if the Gov resigns, he’ll escape prosecution.
Comment by Yellow Dog Democrat Tuesday, Jan 15, 08 @ 3:22 pm
Since the governor has done nothing wrong (saying stupid things that hurt himself politically is not against the law), he won’t be prosecuted regardless. Whether he can be re-elected is becoming somewhat questionable. Time (2 plus years) heals all wounds, however.
Comment by Bill Tuesday, Jan 15, 08 @ 4:18 pm
As I said last week, Blago is an evil genius or very stupid. All of this talk about free rides has totally diminished the tax hike issue. Like it or not it was a brilliant political move by the governor and I am not one to mention the words brilliant and Governor Blago in the same sentence.
Comment by southern illinoisan Tuesday, Jan 15, 08 @ 4:56 pm