Blagojevich, Daley point fingers over CTA

Gov. Rod Blagojevich defended giving free rides to senior citizens on Chicago Transit Authority buses and trains and said the mass transit agency should stop blaming senior citizens for its money trouble.

The governor's comments Wednesday were in reaction to Mayor Richard Daley, who said Blagojevich would be to blame if the CTA is forced to raise fares.

Daley pointed to the free rides offered to senior citizens as a reason the CTA made another $40 million in cuts this week. Blagojevich has also vetoed a reduced fare subsidy and recently signed a new law mandating free rides for low-income people with disabilities.

Blagojevich used his amendatory veto power earlier this year to demand that senior citizens across the state get free rides on their local mass transit in exchange for his approval of a sales-tax increase to fund mass transit.

"My message to the CTA is they ought to stop blaming senior citizens and they ought to stop being dishonest to the public. They said if the General Assembly gave them that sales-tax increase that they would not increase fares, that they wouldn't lay people off and that they wouldn't cut service, but already we know they have broken that promise," Blagojevich said.

Blagojevich said he wants changes on the CTA board and he wants to take a look at why the agency is "wasting" taxpayer money.