October 11, 2008
New CTA Board Member Wants to Nix Fare Hike
Former deputy governor Sheila Nix, who stepped down last June and was recently appointed by Governor Blagojevich to the Chicago Transit Authority board, says that she would vote against a recently proposed fare hike. The CTA says the increased fares are necessary due to rising fuel costs and the decrease in real estate transfer taxes, a portion of which goes to fund the CTA. Nix is critical of the increase, because she claims the recent state funding received after the "doomsday" in January was supposed to avoid this situation:
"It seems to me you're raising credibility questions when less than 10 months later, you're asking for a fare increase right after people got a sales tax increase," Nix said today after a board meeting.
Another contributing factor the the current CTA shortfall is the
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Nix also suggested that the CTA borrow the money needed to close its budget hole, estimated at $42.2 million.
CTA Chair Carole Brown told Nix that would be both illegal and irresponsible and could come back to haunt riders. per WBBM
Wow Im shocked Blago's former aide would suggest doing something illegal.
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Where did you get that "almost $20 million" number, prescott? Every recent article I have seen states it is between 25 and 30 million. For example, the WBBM article puts it at over $26 million: http://www.wbbm780.com/Board-Wants-Delay-On-Fair-Hike/3116646 The Sun-Times article you cited doesn't mention it. So where does the "almost $20 million" figure you state come from? It seems to me to have either come from thin air or something very outdated. It is clearly well over that.
And it is enough that it would at least cut the fare increases in half if the program were repealed. And probably around 97% of the people in the state think it should be repealed. So there is no excuse for that not being done. Everybody needs to call their state legislators and tell them that they need to elimanate the program.
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The $20 million was the initial figure quoted when the program was first implemented. My fault for not checking if the number had been updated. More than happy to be wrong in this instance, as it only further emphasizes the ridiculousness of Nix's indignation.
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this is pathetic. 42 million? didn't we just give a bunch of banks 780 billion? people make 42 million in a year in this country and we can't plug this most miniscule of budge holes.
help us obama, you're our only hope.