Monday, November 26, 2007 12:11 AM CST
GUEST COLUMN: Borrowing Band-Aids no solution for woes
By Sen. Dale Righter
By Sen. Dale Righter
R-Mattoon, 55th Illinois Senate District
As the Illinois General Assembly’s never-ending 2007 legislative session begins to creep into 2008, two issues dominate the conversations among the state’s leaders. First is the ongoing negotiations aimed at achieving something Illinois has not had for almost a decade — a statewide construction initiative to improve our roads, bridges, and education facilities. Second, and far more contentious, has been the debate over the public transit systems based largely in the Chicagoland area. These systems which include PACE (suburban buses), METRA (suburban trains), and the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA), which operates both the elevated trains and the buses in the city of Chicago provide public transportation to hundreds of thousands each day. Without question, these mass transit systems are important to these people individually, and to the region as a whole.
Despite considerable funding increases in recent years that have brought state-taxpayer support to approximately $30 million, officials representing these systems, and particularly the CTA, have complained loudly that the state-taxpayer assistance they receive is insufficient. This year, they have gone so far as to establish so-called “doomsday dates,” by which transit officials have warned there would be drastic service reductions and fare increases that could cripple the region if the state failed to provide a large infusion of increased funding. These deadlines have come and gone without much happening to affect the system, which has left many in Springfield comparing Chicago transit officials to the ‘little boy who cried wolf.’
Nevertheless, legislators from Chicago introduced legislation in both the House and Senate to give PACE, METRA, and the CTA what they wanted. Among other items, these bills would impose more than $400 million in new taxes to provide the increased funding the transit officials have demanded.
But many other legislators have objected to both the transit officials’ demands and the legislation calling for new taxes — and for good reason. Setting aside regular reports of near-empty buses driving their routes, grossly over-paid employees (such as $70,000 for someone to sweep buses), and a pension system for CTA employees that gives them full health-care benefits after only three years of service, independent investigations of these systems have weighed in. The state’s auditor general has pointed out that the systems’ overly-generous pension and benefits plan, combined with almost comical mismanagement in many areas, has led to much of their supposed financial crisis. Also, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigative report following a July 2006 accident and fire on one of the CTA’s trains also demonstrates that waste, insufficiency, and corruption are the most significant problems. Among the most serious revelations in the NTSB findings was that track inspectors were falsifying inspection records.
As a result, it’s not surprising that the bills outlined above, despite being endorsed and promoted by House Speaker Michael Madigan (D-Chicago) and Senate President Emil Jones (D-Chicago), have failed to gain the support necessary to pass. Gov. Blagojevich, who originally indicated his opposition to a bail-out plan that included a tax increase, now appears to be reconsidering because of pressure from Democrat leaders.
But, regardless of transit officials’ lack of credibility, the governor is working hard to appease them, even at the expense of transportation needs elsewhere. Early in November, the governor, using his executive authority, diverted funds borrowed for statewide transportation construction projects away from their intended recipients and toward METRA, PACE, and the CTA. This $27-million Band Aid, which transit officials say will keep them “solvent” through January 2008, are funds that will be paid back by the state’s taxpayers, with interest.
Borrowing money and sacrificing other transportation projects is not the answer, and by doing so the governor has only further promoted the perception of him being both fiscally irresponsible and obsessed only with Chicago’s needs and desires. What is the solution? First, the service reductions and fare increases that transit officials have warned us about should be implemented — they would be far from the catastrophe that the “doomsday” rhetoric has led some to believe. In fact, they consist of entirely reasonable and necessary fare increases of approximately 10%, and elimination of duplicative routes. After that is achieved, the systems’ compensation and oversight structures must change — they have become bloated and ineffective, as demonstrated by last year’s fire and the resulting NTBS findings. Then, and only after then, should there be a serious discussion of additional funding.
Traditionally, problems in government also provide opportunities to improve the services government helps provide — and this is just such an opportunity. We can improve the efficiency, safety, and effectiveness of a service that is important to Illinois’ economy and the environment — but, not by simply increasing taxes and spending as Speaker Madigan and Sen. Jones have suggested, nor by borrowing Band-Aids as the governor has done.
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Early Bird wrote on Nov 26, 2007 5:25 AM: