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On Friday, Vought in a post on X wrote, ”$2.1 billion in Chicago infrastructure projects--specifically the Red Line Extension and the Red and Purple Modernization Project--have been put on hold to ensure funding is not flowing via race-based contracting.” More info to come soon from @USDOT, Vought added, referring to the Department of Transportation.
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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If this derails the CTA’s ill-advised Red Line extension boondoggle, it could up saving CTA billions that could be better spent elsewhere.
Unconstitutional DEI Racism is…….illegal and unconstitutional. Sorry Racist BJ and publicity hound JB.
This is the train to nowhere. It is intended to go into the least populous and least dense area in the entire city, there’s no housing close to where the stations will be, and there’s probably only a handful of people in that area who will be commuting to the empty downtown or any other neighborhoods. I would love to see the percentage of gainfully employed people in those neighborhoods. There’s zero justification for this rail line. It’s purely a boondoggle and the Feds should not fund one penny of it. It’s Chicago’s version of the California high speed rail… Read more »
The end of the line is Altgeld Gardens housing project. Many of the people there will be able to quickly reach the Loop to take one of the high paid LaSalle Street Jobs. The local CPS schools are busy preparing their scholars now. The golden age of Chicago depends on this little railroad.
The funniest part is that once you pass 103rd Street driving south on the highway, you can’t even see a house LOL!
I cannot imagine how scary that train and any of the stations will be once the sun goes down.
I expect that Trump would reinstate the project if Chicago and its school district would file for bankruptcy.
Don’t put them on hold – cancel them. These projects are boondoggles, filled with corruption, payoffs and money laundering The state does not need this project. Cancel them all together.
They shouldn’t be doing them anyway. What about the fiscal cliff? Once again CTA spending money that they don’t have.
Fun headline from Mr. Vought, but almost every state, and the Republican-led federal gov’t, have MBE/WBE/DBE requirements for construction contracts. While he may not, or the Trump administration may not, value these arrangements, this is vengeance-based politics. If they were reasonable, they would take on the programs nationwide. Alas, they are not reasonable/ethical people (not that many in political power are).
its is not “vengeance- based”; it is constitutionally- based.
the issue is that using federal funding on projects that award contracts based on DEI are unconstitutional and require review.
The Trump admin Is going after projects on a nationwide basis: for example:
they have frozen $18 billion to NYC using race-based contracting on infrastructure projects there.
hopefully there will be more reviews of federally funded contracts awarded based on gender and race.
It is discriminatory.
OK, then why is he not going after the same project/funding types in TX?
https://www.texassba.org/minority-owned-business-certification.php
Did u actually read the site?!
This not the federal SBA; this is a private not public org.
No federal funds are involved.
see above
Chicago Public Schools graduate can’t read!
Good point. All federal subsidized contracts should be held until race neutral language is updated.
If Pritzker and Brandon Johnson wanted to improve public transport in Chicago, they would negotiate with US-DOT. Maybe offer to forego half the RLE money, cancel the project and use the remainder of funds to improve bus and Metra service in the area. Residents would receive more benefit, sooner, but connected contractors and lobbyists would suffer.
As for RPM, the project seems pretty nearly complete so I’m not sure how funds could be clawed back.
CTA can barely run what it has, and keeping the El safe seems beyond their ability. Is the extension truly needed?
“ Sorry, CHI town! No boondoggle like Newsome’s in LA for you!” says the evil orange man.