CTA Officials A Bunch of Dipshits

By Alicia Dorr in News on Oct 13, 2006 6:10AM

Remember the time when the CTA presented a "doomsday" budget and freaked everyone in the tri-state area out about with the prospect of no more (or barely any) CTA? You know, that time when the legislators in Springfield said they wouldn't bail the CTA's sorry ass out? You may remember that they relented at the last minute, like a parent consenting to give a child candy if they'd just stop embarrassing them in front of all the other customers in line at Wal-Mart. But they basically turned them out into the cold after handing over the dough - no more candy for you, CTA. We've got to turn our backs now.

Well, the CTA really is like that bawling, red-faced child with snot running out of its nose. As they pile on project after project that they can't afford—nor really explain the concrete need for, incidentally—the budget wizards at the CTA have come up short again on this year's budget. Really? No kidding! Perhaps if they stopped pulling random people into the office and desperately shouting, "Do you know how to make a budget?? Do you?! Help us!" they might actually be able to find someone to balance one, but that's beside the point.

What the point is, and let's not let it get away from us now, is that CTA officials announced yesterday that there is a $110 million hole in the authority's projected budget for 2007 that they really, actually expect lawmakers to fill for them. Ridership is expected to increase next year by 3 percent, but customer fares only account for half of the revenue needed to continue service as is. We were hoping to hear something about settling the hell down on creating new circle lines and spaceships to O'Hare, you know, spending a little more time on upgrading the track systems and a little less time going, "Beep Beep Beep - The train is going to be delayed indefinitely because we forgot what it is the CTA is supposed to do."

But no. Crazy Kruesi basically sounded like a doddering fool while delivering the speech, saying cryptic things like, "Whether 2007 will be a good year for transit or a bad year is still not clear" and "The status quo is not an option."

We agree—perhaps we can start with his resignation.