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With a looming financial cliff threatening to force cuts by as much as 40% in Chicago-area public transit service, voters are getting their first look at a plan that's spent months in development on how to remake the Chicago Transit Authority, Metra and Pace for the post-COVID era. The plan is, to use its own word, “bold” — calling for new investments and fare cuts funded by expanding the state sales tax to cover more services and raising tolls on the Illinois Tollway, a shift of service away from its current downtown focus and the addition of more service, particularly on buses. The full plan is linked here.
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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The jobs program for political pals known as Metra and the CTA must be funded forthwith, lest the support from said patronage politicians get cut!
Hey Y’all, rather daily CTA rider. It seems like based on your comment section, and this article, y’all don’t ride it. My vote here in Chicago is going towards ending motor vehicle access within city limits, and I write my Alderwoman regularly ban cars and open the streets to bikes and pedestrians again. We’ll get there, and stop climate change girls! /Flex Then all you losers with your cars will be so mad, never even step foot in the city, and I’ll still be loving living in the BEST city in this country. Stay out in the burbs, we don’t… Read more »
Upvote for you MEB, for being the first one to use the /Flex thing on this site. (All those losers here probably don’t know even know what it means.)
Had to downvote due to the sad effects of the Climate Clerics on our poor misguided and delusional MEB. /Flex
On my comment perhaps I should have added a 😉
Private cars and trucks kept US cities from starving to death during COVID — they aren’t going anywhere — just need to throw rocks every time City Hall tries to tell you what car you can have, and where you can drive and park it
Well, MEB can /Flex and hand carry everything in from the city limits. I’m sure these foot pedestrian couriers will be completely safe. As a member of the (real world) transportation industry, I think the logistics will fall down rather quickly.
I fear that, when Starbuck’s runs short on scones, the manbuns will be in a skinny jean tizzy. How long will it take the foot patrols (the only ones that the Climate Faithful will allow) to get to the tantrum-ing manbuns to keep the peace?
Maybe Mark should spell out sarcasm for certain commenters. Even the emoji clearly didn’t help some people.
FYI, I don’t really think Mark should do this.
Maybe we should have one day a week where only name calling and sarcasm are allowed in comments. Substance banned. Get everything off our chests 😉
/S is a tone indicator which means “sarcasm.”
Stupidity or Sarcasm?
MEB, It’s time for you to back up your words with personal action. Right now, you’re living a lie by participating in the normal people’s world on THEIR terms, but face it, you need to go all-in on YOUR version of the world. Be the change you want to see, right? Since you don’t like cars and their internal combustion engines, because they somehow change the weather in your world, you need to stop using any item which has been transported by a vehicle with an internal combustion engine into your pedestrian utopia. To bring this alive for you, you’ll… Read more »
Expanding the states sales taxes sounds great as the Democrat voters in my downstate liberal utopia love paying taxes to support Chicago
Illinoisans near the borders know what to do … don’t shop in Illinois.
Chicago Transit Riders Have Abandoned The System — Which Is Now A Crime Infested, Drug-Ridden, Chaos Breeding, Piss And Shit Stinking Disaster — But Chicago Transit Agencies Want A Giant Tax Hike/Taxpayer Bailout
It’s an investment.
Haha, I crack myself up!!