The minute hand of the Chicago region’s mass-transit doomsday clock is advancing perilously close to midnight amid indications Sunday that action on new state funding will mimic many CTA buses — arriving late, if at all.
The stern message delivered from Springfield is that lawmakers will miss the CTA’s Sunday deadline for a legislative agreement to boost the operating subsidy.
The disappointing news left CTA President Ron Huberman with the decision to either carry out or — if so ordered by Mayor Daley — possibly postpone the service cuts and fare increases he has warned the General Assembly about since taking over the troubled transit agency in May.
But Huberman reiterated Sunday that the contingency plan must go forward in the absence of new funding to help shore up a $110 million CTA budget deficit. Any delay, coupled with a failure to secure additional state subsidies, would render the CTA unable to meet its December payroll and force a systemwide shutdown, Huberman said.
“These cuts and fare increases will hurt everyone,” Huberman said during a news conference at the CTA’s Kedzie Avenue bus garage.
“I understand that they are angry,” he said of the riders who will have to find alternate transportation and CTA workers who will lose jobs. “This has been a frustrating few months.”
Anxious riders
Frustration doesn’t begin to describe the anxiety CTA customers are feeling.
“I wouldn’t know the first thing about how to get to school, and then back, too, if anything changes,” said Amina Doctrove, a regular CTA bus rider who recently moved to Chicago from Shreveport, La., to attend Columbia College.
Meanwhile, the CTA is moving quickly to reformat fare boxes and turnstiles to charge higher fares starting Sunday. In addition, the CTA will put into storage several hundred of its oldest buses, which won’t be needed when 39 bus routes are eliminated Sept. 17, Huberman said.
The transit standoff is coming to a head now that Senate President Emil Jones (D-Chicago) late Friday called off plans for the Senate to return Monday to work on a transit deal for the CTA, Metra and Pace that would raise about $435 million annually.
The transit-funding package, defeated in a House vote last week, includes a hike in the region’s sales tax for mass transit and an increase in Chicago’s real estate-transfer tax. It also contains proposed reforms in the CTA’s employee pension, health-care and retiree-benefits programs and gives sweeping new powers to the RTA.
Gov. Blagojevich has vowed to veto any tax increase, encouraging lawmakers to support his plan to raise revenue by closing corporate tax loopholes.
The Senate will not consider transit funding until Sept. 17, said Jones’ spokeswoman, Cindy Davidsmeyer. That’s the day both the CTA service cuts and layoffs affecting about 630 bus drivers, mechanics and other employees are set to begin.
Jones believes the CTA and other transit agencies should hold off on the service cuts and fare hikes because the Senate plans to act on the matter that day, Davidsmeyer said.
Rep. Julie Hamos (D-Evanston), the House sponsor of the transit legislation, said she is “very concerned that we don’t have any options in the House this week, and at this point we’re going to see the doomsday-budget scenario take effect before we have a chance to act.”
‘Cannot rush the process’
Patty Schuh, spokeswoman for Watson, said the Republican leader has made it clear all year that there must be a thoughtful discussion on any legislation. Democrats cannot expect GOP support if a bill is unveiled at a moment’s notice without a chance for careful review, Schuh said.
Policy experts say the transit-funding stalemate exposes government at its worst.
“Low-income people will be paying more for transit starting [Monday] . Are we going to build a casino by [Monday]?” asked Jacquelyne Grimshaw, vice president for policy, transportation and community development at the Center for Neighborhood Technology.
Grimshaw, a former schoolteacher, said of the governor and the legislative leadership: “This is worse than my worst day teaching with kids being totally unreasonable.”
But amid the political calculations, many of those riders are angry.
Paris Jelks, a sophomore at Proviso West High School, thought he’d have an easy time getting to school this year, since the No. 17 Westchester bus stop is just steps from the door of his family’s apartment.
But the red-letter poster beneath the bus stop sign Sunday made it clear he would have to find a new way to school next week when the CTA eliminates the Westchester route.
“It’s a route that’s been here since I’ve been living here, 18 years,” said Jelks’ mother, LaTonya McHugh. “Just to see that go will cause a lot of inconvenience to a lot of people. “
What’s at stake
If the CTA doesn’t get the funding it says it needs, the agency plans to boost fares starting Sunday. It will then suspend service on 39 bus routes the next day.
