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Summary and audio linked here.
Chicago’s political leadership is floating a pension buyout program as evidence it is seriously addressing the city’s thirty-six-billion-dollar unfunded pension liability, but Mark Glennon, founder of the Illinois policy research organization Wirepoints, said that the proposal moves debt from one column to another rather than reducing it, and that the broader fiscal picture facing the city continues to deteriorate across every measurable dimension. Audio here.
Expect no retraction or apology. This what they do.
The state’s existing buyout program for its own pensions is the precedent for Chicago, which should be a warning: Look out for similar exaggerated claims and shoddy analysis.
Full interview and summary linked here.
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There is no way to conveniently and safely get to OHare on public transit from the Northside or Southside without long bus rides with transfers and/or going through the central business district downtown. In and out of downtown was the primary goal of public transportation. Now that business and employment are collapsing downtown a rider must run the gauntlet of filth and crime on the rail system or filth crime and traffic on the surface system to reach their destination. A complete re-think is needed and just like the Rock Island Trains do now certain non-profitable areas will have to… Read more »
More to the point (from the article):
“The Chicago area’s transportation agencies are still 30% below pre-pandemic ridership, but instead of cutting costs to serve fewer riders they are asking taxpayers for $1.5 billion more.”
It’s worse than that. Ridership peaked in 2012 at 545.6 million rides on Chicago Transit. That number was 309.2 million in 2024. Ridership is down 43.3% from the peak and trending downward every year from that peak. Political animals, transit advocates and Climate Clerics want us to only look at data since the Coof nadir of 2020. Like the so-called “climate science”, cherry picking numbers or time frames to suit a narrative leaves out the true story.
This is from the RTA’s own data. Service cuts are long overdue.
I’m betting they have the same number of union employees. Think they would reduce the workforce to match the ridership level. Nope , just demand more money to pay the workforce.
Start asking the riders to pay what it cost or cancel routes.
Until these transit agencies clean house of incompetent personnel,, reduce administrative costs, political and DEI hires, stop spending money that they don’t have, and improve safety, they shouldn’t get dime one.