Thanks Springfield!

You collective asshats:

• Chicago aldermen who pushed Springfield for a Chicago Transit Authority rescue plan are close to getting what they wanted. But if the deal receives final approval from the General Assembly this week, they'll also get a political hot potato some had not bargained for: a vote to raise a tax that's triggered whenever a house or other property is sold.
  
  The mass-transit measure increases the sales tax in the six-county region. But under another provision that has escaped widespread attention, Chicago's real estate transfer tax would increase by as much as 40 percent - to $10.50 for every $1,000 of sales price from the current $7.50. And to the surprise of some aldermen, that increase would have to be approved by the City Council.

And we're going to call bullshit on this one:

• Gov. Blagojevich never discussed a plan to offer free rides for senior citizens with the head of the Chicago Transit Authority before making the idea public last week, the agency's chief said Monday.

  CTA President Ron Huberman said he was concerned Blagojevich's proposal could scuttle final approval of a mass transit funding bill. ''The governor's office did not ask our opinion relative to the senior rides,'' he said in a telephone interview.
  

  But Huberman stopped short of criticizing the governor and declined to say if the lack of prior knowledge upset him.

This thing has Daley's fingerprints all over it.