State legislators share mass transit woes

With tough budget and overtime sessions all summer, state Sen. John Cullerton (D-Chicago) said in some ways it’s been a “horrific year.” But he still had some positive things to talk about at a recent Town Hall meeting at the Center on Halsted.

“One of the most important issues in my district is the CTA, more important perhaps than the state budget,” Cullerton said. “I’m the sponsor of a bill that, if it passes, will be a long-term solution to the RTA /CTA funding crisis.”

Mass transit problems are partly due to incompetence and mismanagement of funds, Cullerton said. But raising fares will not solve the problem, he said, because fares cover the cost of just half of mass transit, so more money is needed.

“We’ve been funding the RTA through a sales tax,” Cullerton said. “There’s a 1 percent sales tax in Cook County and a .25 percent sales tax in the collar counties” (Lake, McHenry, Kane, Will and DuPage).

Cullerton’s legislation, Senate Bill 572, would increase the sales tax by ¼ percent and help prevent bus route cancellations and other threatened cuts in service.

“The best way to think about that is for a $4 purchase, it’s a penny,” he said. For every two cups of coffee or one cappuccino, an extra penny would go directly to the CTA.

“We need to not just throw money at the CTA, there (are) major reforms in there,” Cullerton said of the legislation. “Dramatic changes, really, in reforming CTA and giving RTA more authority over CTA and Metra.”

The constituent office Cullerton shares with state Rep. Sara Feigenholtz (D-Chicago) has received thousands of calls, e-mails and letters about the CTA, Feigenholtz said, more than any other issue. As a transit rider, she, too, “feels the pain,” she said.

State Rep. “Julie Hamos worked on this (bill) for two years,” Feigenholtz said. “And to craft a piece of legislation supported by the RTA, CTA and Metra that involves governments, pension reform and long-term funding reform was nothing short of a miracle.”

The legislation is part of a complex bill with multiple amendments, which Hamos breaks down in detail on her Web site with fact sheets, news stories and testimony going back to 2004.

But Gov. Rod Blagojevich turned it into a “horse trading game,” the legislators said. And his unwillingness to compromise has put them into an even tougher situation, they said, and it’s gotten very personal – and very public.

“It (SB 572) had tremendous support,” Feigenholtz said. “(But) it was taken hostage politically.”

Cullerton gained support from “downstaters” by explaining that cutting mass transit funds would mean more cars on the already crowded roads and highways.

“It has been 23 years (since) we retooled the funding formula for transit and a funding mechanism is built in(to) the legislation with the sales tax and the transfer tax,” Feigenholtz said. “It should be passed stand alone without hitches to any gaming bills, a clean vote up or down.”

“And the money goes directly to the RTA, not to Springfield, so it’s (not) caught up in our budget messes,” Cullerton added.

After discussing mass transit and reiterating their support for the bill, Cullerton discussed another complicated financial issue: property taxes.

Years ago, rapidly rising property taxes was forcing some long-term residents out of their homes. In 1993, Cullerton introduced the Neighborhood Homeowner Exemption Plan, which capped increases in the assessed value of property, so taxes would not increase more than 7 percent in one year.

“It’s a good bill; it saves a lot of money for people in our district,” Cullerton said, noting that the governor vetoed the version approved by lawmakers and instead raised the cap to $40,000 and made it permanent.

The “7 percent solution,” which passed three years ago, would be extended for another three years, Cullerton said, under the legislation he supports.

“Property tax bills were supposed to be out no later than Aug. 1st,” Feigenholtz said. “And because of the parliamentary motion of an override, that means if this bill goes nowhere, there is no property tax relief at all.”

One success story Cullerton highlighted was the Clean Indoor Air Act, which prohibits smoking indoors as of Jan. 1, 2008. A cigarette tax increase also passed, which he said reduces the number of people who smoke and the number of children who try it.

“Somebody working an eight-hour shift where people are smoking, that’s the equivalent of 16 cigarettes,” Cullerton said. “It’s all about second-hand smoke. It was hard to pass, and it was really close.”

Many constituents voiced concerns at the Sept. 25 town hall about the state’s Democratic leadership and its inability to get things done. Several asked when leaders were up for re-election, including the governor. They hear these questions frequently, the legislators said.

“There’s been so much animosity that has rolled into the property tax issue, transit funding issue and the capital bill,” Feigenholtz said. “I agree with you, it’s been very frustrating. And it is a question of leadership, there’s no doubt about it.”

Not wishing to end on a negative note, Feigenholtz said she remained hopeful that cooler heads would prevail this month as lawmakers return to work.

“I’m not taking hope away,” she said. “I think there is going to be a resolution. There has to be a capital bill, there has to be transit funding and there has to be property tax relief. I don’t think it’s a matter of “if,” I think it’s a matter of ‘how’ and I think ‘when’ is coming.”