Time to move on a transportation plan

Maybe it's time for commuters to take matters into their own hands, in the absence of the state providing more money for mass transit. Perhaps they could string together a bunch of Radio Flyer wagons behind borrowed construction equipment and get back and forth to work that way.

Better that than a spike in fares and loss of bus service in Chicago and the suburbs, which is pending without action in Springfield. On Tuesday, the Illinois House rejected a multimillion-dollar plan that would firm up financing of area mass transit and pay for needed upgrades and expansion of service.

So once again the state legislature is calling attention to itself for what it is unable to get done, outside of pay hikes for legislators and the governor and pork projects approved in expectation of future political favors.

It's not just the Illinois House that is opposed to this plan. Gov. Rod Blagojevich doesn't like it because of the tax hikes attached to it -- a sales tax that would be paid only by Cook County and the collar counties and a real estate transfer tax imposed on residents of Chicago. He's offered his own transit financing plan.

Republican lawmakers in the House who voted against the mass transit bill have different ideas on how to approach transportation funding. They agree mass transit needs a boost. But they want money for bus and rail folded into an overall transportation program that also includes funding for road improvements.

This argument is more reasonable than obstructionist. It has been a long time since the state has approved a comprehensive transportation program that addresses both transit and road improvements. Meanwhile, roads are congested and bridges are crumbling.

There is another very good reason to come up with a plan that also addresses funding road construction.

Congress has set aside billions for road improvements in Illinois, courtesy of former House Speaker Dennis Hastert and the rest of the Illinois congressional delegation. But much of that money can't be released without the state putting up matching funds of its own. That federal money is not going to sit there forever.

Besides, coupling money for roads and bridges with mass transit funding might also be more politically palatable to downstate legislators, whose support will be needed to provide a veto-proof transportation plan. They just might be reluctant to approve any tax hike to support mass transit that doesn't even exist in their part of the state. They do, however, have beat-up roads and bridges.

It is encouraging that state Senate officials said late Wednesday the Senate will convene Monday to discuss transit. Coming up with a prudent, pork-free, mass transit/road program that could meet with public approval might still be a bit ambitious for this legislative session. Plunging the mass transit system into a funding crisis would be more in tune with the turmoil in Springfield, but that can't be allowed to happen.