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Know that bill that would have restricted the free senior citizen transit rides to only the truly needy? It's dead in the water. The Illinois State Senate, apparently intimidated by old people calling their offices and shaking their canes at them, refused to even call the bill up for a vote. And without the vote, the bill gets buried. Senator Rickey Hendon (D-Chicago) admitted that the "seniors are the ones who really carried the ball" on getting the measure quashed, and, as Hendon added, he was "pretty sure" that Govenor Pat Quinn would have vetoed the bill if it passed, anyway. A representative for Senate President John Cullerton (D-Chicago) said that it didn't seem that the bill had enough support to pass into law.
Quinn had previously given the bill consideration, saying:
“If there’s a review and it finds the program should be based on ability to pay, that low-income seniors and definitely veterans and also our military personnel receive a break with respect to public transit, I think that’s where we’re headed."
If the bill had somehow passed, it could have saved the CTA as much as $37 million.
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What bull poop. When it passed originally, there were interviews with seniors saying that they would gladly forgo the free pass. It's not means tested and it was a gimick from the word go. Now it's your basic guvmint entitlement as far as the pols go.
bulldoody. it's not like seniors are paying full-price if the free rides program is taken away.
So everyone else suffers. Because a bunch of old farts who are probably better off financially than many of us (what are the chances I'll ever see any returns on my social security investment, Gramma?) feel entitled to free rides on public transportation, simply for...being old.
Not necessarily "free" if everyone else is paying more to finance your joyrides on the bus. I don't want to sound harsh but there are plenty of people that can't afford the cta.What makes all seniors, regardless of income, more worthy than an unemployed 45 year old that needs the bus to find work?
Youth is truth (I wish old rhymed with lies)!
Clearly no one's willing to address the real issue - that instead of shuffling on to the 51 bus, old people should be harvested for the chemicals in their bodies for the benefit of the young. But just try telling those fat cats in Springfield that ...
Let's start a protest movement - everyone sit in the "priority seating for seniors and handicapped" and refuse to give the seats up for seniors. Hey, we're the ones paying to be there, we should get the seats!