State Budget
- The Illinois House approved Wednesday night the revenue portion of Speaker Mike Madigan's budget proposal. It includes $300 million in new business taxes and no new casinos.
That's not the worst of it though:
- The plan could run into opposition from the governor, and from Senate President Emil Jones.
They favor a bigger spending increase.
$300 million isn't enough - they want more.
- The House Democrats' plan does not make full pension payments that are due to state pension funds. It raises taxes on businesses by closing some exemptions that are worth several hundred million dollars, and it leaves Mayor Richard M. Daley facing potential cut-backs and lay-offs at the Chicago Transit Authority and Chicago Public Schools.
Gee, raise taxes and still, the pensions don't get funded. And the CTA won't get any more money to piss away? Quick, someone call Huberman!
Huberman detailed four other plans that CTA staff considered before recommending cutting service on 63 bus routes and the Yellow Line and Purple Line Express routes and introducing a new fare structure that would charge rush-hour commuters up to $3.25.
One plan involved closing the CTA's $97.5 million budget gap almost solely by raising fares. Under that plan, riders would pay $7 to ride buses and trains during peak hours.
Another option -- if the CTA didn't divert any capital dollars to its operating budget -- would have been to increase fares to as much as $5.50 during peak hours, while eliminating 107 bus routes and all CTA L lines except Red and Blue.
$7 dollars a ride? Eliminate 107 bus routes and every train line except the Red and Blue lines? Bwahahahaha. This brilliant idea is from the mayor's golden boy? Bwahahahaha. Oh lord.
Labels: state politics
posted by SCC at 12:03 AM
22 Comments:
Hmm do you think daley is still happy with ronnie boy? After this he will effectively shut down the cta! look at all the busines that will get the hell out of this criminal enterprise state! The feds have a big family secrets trial coming up, how about a bigger "states secret" type of trial Patrick Fitzgerald could bring in a nice cast of crimonals like madigan,balgo,rezko (Oh he is alreday coming soon on the attractiosn), reyes (why is he not indicted is he shitting all over himself telling on the daley crew?), Stroger (The dumbfuck who keeps up the hiring of morons) Emil Jones (the guy who got his new ho wife a 180K made up job), the 50 alderthieves, degnan, joyce, dart, devine,what a fun crew it would be interesting watching them all squeal!
It only cost me $4 a day to operate my vehicle. Add half gal of fuel @ $4 per gal, comes out to 6 bucks a day. Why for less than a pack of smokes would anyone in their right mind get on a bus?
If the CTA is going to fail without state money it should be allowed to fail.Any business that has poor management and can't be selfsufficient due to mismanagement should fail.I'm no fan of Hubberman but it's not his fault,he just got there and the CTA has been in a sad state for decades.If the CTA fails perhaps it will be replaced by another transit company that can actually handle it's funding in a proper way without threatening the public that uses it.Dodo bird I say.
hey luberman how about putting GPS in every bus and then shit can all those political hacks like yourself that check the times of the bus times. what a waste. like at united center they have about 6 to 7 buses to take fans back downtown and they have 3 supervisors and all of them have cta vehicles WTF there is some of your fat.
Hey remember Hubie drove the short bus in College so he's got it all covered.
Newsflash Luberman, just because I take a dump on a crapper, it doesn't qualify me as a Plumber.
Then again in this city it would qualify me to run the Water Department...
The powers that be should just admit that they can not have mass transit in the third most corrupt state in the United States. (We have a high corruption ranking on the world level also)They should realize that if they are going to have any hope of keeping business and people in the downtown area they should sell the El. structure for scrap and create diagonal parking on the street. Build a multi story parking garage on Northerly Island. These could serve business during the day and the Casino at night.
Why should I subsidize CTA and Metra riders? My work day starts before the buses run so I can't use them even if they are free for the Police. Nobody is helping me out with the price of gas. If you use it pay for it!
In the same vein, heart warming story in slum-times today about $100 Million donated to pay for poor scholarships at U of C. Poor family earning $20K per year gets full ride scholarship valued at $47K, net income $67K. Working family (police/Fire) earning $90K pays full freight, net income $43K for same year. Does it pay to work? And don't tell me only the best and brightest get into U of C. Minority/poor admission requirements are much lower than for middle class Whites. Once again we are paying an extra tax for others.
millions spent on the gps and announcement system that calls out the streets. WTF. Is'nt that what a bus driver use to do. The buses have radio's don't they. The cta has been stealing our money for years. can you blame the rest of the state for not wanting to fund our corruption.
Anyone know waht the budget is for those propaganda cable stations that the city operates? What's peter karl's salary for all that bs he slings.. I'm so sick of these marches and parades to stop the violence, crime, etc.
Way to go, Mayor Daley!! Thanks to the new Sock Puppet running the CTA, you will have buses and trains w/nobody on them. To make it worse, out of town folks here on business as well as vacationers, will NOT go to Chicago.
Instead, they will take the Metra and/or Pace out to the burbs.
Hubberman has no transit background let alone management skills. He shouldn't be making $200k and can make plenty of cuts/find other way to earn revenue.
Many other states require annual bicycle on board passes and charge to park/lockup your bicycle at the facility, cut the vehicles the supervisors have and let them take buses/trains to do checks, etc.
How can the Olympic committee even consider Chicago as a site for the Olympics. The low life thieves on the State, county and city are raking it in with both hands and thinking of no one but themselves and their family's. Everyone knows that phony budget crises is just a show for us stupid taxpayer buffers so we won't be surprised when they cut our interests out of the budget and split the rest. We truly do have the finest politicians that money can buy!!!!
5:09 PM
As Kommissar of Propaganda, Comrade Karl's annual city contracts have an estimated value in excess of $500,000.00.
Can anybody tell me where Hubberman came from and who is this boy that came out of nowhere?
Congratulations to the FOP for accomblishing absolutly nothing in Springfield this year. Their endorsement, donations, lobbying and general ass kissing did nothing for us but, I'll bet, they solidified their post-FOP jobs.
I respect you guys for fighting crime, but your economics is not strong. The budget problems are structural, and after 15 years of neglect the pension problems are going to have to be paid for with money. The CTA is a utility that costs money. Depreciation, healthcare and interest expense are real economic factors that will not go away without dollars. After 6 years of economic expansion, we have to hustle or wind up like the state of Michigan - in a death spiral. You pick.
HUBERMANS MOM DONATED TO DALEY UNDER ANOTHER NAME AND HIS FATHER IS A BIG POLITCAL PLAYER ENOUGH SAID! MONEY TALKS WITH CRIMINAL DALEY!
Why at the cta ironworkers who sleep on the job amking over $275K per year? Most live in indiana and do not even spend money where they steal it from! Over 150 making 275K wow clout is COOL! Hello luberman!!
Think about it. The Democrats control the govenors office, and both the state house and senate, and still they can't get anything done. What a disgrace this whole crew is.
C'mon SCC, my comment about Huberman & the IML competition was gold!
If you think any sort of transportation can operate without public funds, think again. Does your license plate/city sticker fee pay for the roads? I think not. Does your plane ticket pay for the airport, 9-11 security, and air traffic controllers? Does your $2.00 pay for your CTA bus/train ride? NOPE. Try cutting federal/state funding for any form of transportation and you will be on horseback because the roads will be in such bad shape. Forget about a plane, too. Do you think the O'hare expansion is being paid for by the passengers.
Why was Amtrak created? Cause there was NO MONEY TO BE MADE hauling people by train.
Bottom line, all transportation is subsidized. We just get upset when some of the subsidy is sent to transportation we don't like/use.
SCC, this might be fodder for its own post, but I think Blagojevich might be loosing it. Did you hear about his tirade against a fellow Democrat who had the audacity to tell him he wasn't voting for his health care bill. (The senator was named Jacobs and is from the Moline areaa.) Things like this, and his previous talk about his health care bill being the work of the Lord (I am paraphrasing here) make me wonder about his sanity. Or maybe the Feds are much closer to getting him than we know, and he knows it.
Does the company where the city purchases the GPS kick back a little cash to the mayor?
<< Home