Uncomfortable transit junket has politicos on same page for assistance
How do you get the point across that public transit is old, in disrepair and needs fixing?
Well, you could try trapping a group of state lawmakers and media types in an old Pace bus without air conditioning on a hot spring day, then driving them in circles around the Loop looking for the Van Buren Metra station.
Such was the glamorous junket I took Friday along with the Regional Transportation Authority, Pace, Metra, the CTA and assorted wonks. We started out with the Cicero Metra station which seemed to be falling apart slowly, stared at rusty Pace buses and shook our heads over holes in the canopy at the Wabash/Madison CTA El platform.
It was bad, bad I tell you. The piece de resistance was the trip from Cicero to Chicago in the 100-degree bus.
Despite valiant attempts at banter by RTA Executive Director Steve Schlickman, it was a rather cranky crowd that gratefully exited the bus. No one, however, suffered as much as one TV news cameraman who conducted a loud, angry street-by-street analysis of the snafu to a colleague on his cell phone throughout the drive.
The group of legislators were Democrats and Republicans from the city and suburbs. While that's usually a recipe for dissent, everyone was on the same page about passing a substantial capital bill that includes a big chunk - about $10 billion - for public transit.
Where everyone differed was how to pay for it. Gov. Pat Quinn has proposed a $25 billion capital plan to be funded by an income tax increase.
Sen. Martin Sandoval, the Chicago Democrat who chairs the Transportation Committee, supports a plan by Senate President John Cullerton to raise the gas tax. And he also wants to shake up the status quo that sends a big share of the funding pie to roads downstate, saying mass transit shouldn't be a redheaded stepchild any more. "People in Springfield don't get it," Sandoval said. "They believe Chicago is always whining for more money. They don't realize we're the economic engine of the state."
But Rep. Michael Fortner, a West Chicago Republican, says channeling money from the sales tax on gas to transportation alone - instead of the general fund - could help solve the problem. And he's not convinced the government is doing everything to economize in other areas like health care.
Republican Rep. Sid Mathias of Buffalo Grove, on the other hand, "is open to any good ideas. It's premature to support one over the other," he said.
Rep. Julie Hamos, the Evanston Democrat who chairs the Mass Transit Committee, is also willing to consider a gas tax increase, noting that prices aren't at painful levels they were a year ago. But, "we need to be mindful we're in the middle of a recession," she said.
Republican Rep. Darlene Senger of Naperville says before voting she needs a lot more information about how much money is needed for a capital program and the options for raising the cash.
And, Sen. Pam Althoff, a McHenry County Republican, is not closing her mind to anything but doesn't dispute Quinn's critique that a gas tax is regressive. Ideas such as raising fees for driver's licenses should be investigated, Althoff said, adding "we have to ask people who take public transit to pay their fair share."
Flotsam and jetsam
• The Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning is, well, all about planning. So it came as a surprise for the organization when it got an unplanned cut of $3.5 million in the state budget. The buzz is that staff for Gov. Pat Quinn thought the funding was a political earmark. Now it turns out that removing revenues from the budget is easier than putting it back in. CMAP is starting to get worried because the decrease in state dollars could jeopardize $11 million in federal funding. To learn more, check out cmap.illinois.gov.
• What's next for Route 53? Well, after Lake County voters backed an advisory referendum on extending the road north, some lawmakers say it's time to get the project out of mothballs. "The issue is not whether we build it but how we fund it," Mathias said Friday, adding he thinks the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority is the agency to do the job.
Incoming
• If you're cruising south one of these weekends on I-80, prepare for lane reductions on bridges over the DuPage River, just west of I-55. The Illinois Department of Transportation is fixing deteriorated concrete and repairing bridge piers. Work should be done by the July 4 holiday.
• Leave your cash at home and bring plastic if you want to buy a cocktail on United Airlines flights starting Monday. The airline is going "cash-free" for in-flight purchases with the exception of United Express.
• Pace announced it's ready to start a Bus Rapid Transit service next spring from the southwest suburbs to Chicago. The bus would run along the shoulder of I-55 and stop at Bolingbrook, Romeoville and Burr Ridge. For more information, contact pacebus.com.