^ No roughly 75% people who read the Tribune oppose free rides for seniors ;)

^ I guess I've foundly found a use for that fake white beard in my closet

I'm not sure if our political situation in this state would be called a comedy or a tragedy if it was made into a play.

Our governor is a sulking child and the legislature amounts to a pimp convention.

Couldn't be. And we all know seniors can't afford the $1 fare they currently pay, and that if they didn't have the money those cruel bus drivers would surely throw them off the bus...

There is a "free ride" button on the fareboxes....and of course seniors would have to show some ID verifying that they are, in fact, older than dirt.

^ They should just brand all seniors' forearms. Then they can simply run their arms over barcodes to enter train platforms and buses

Chicago should pass a rule to simply exterminate anyone who dares live here beyond age 65.

There, I improved the transit bill. Are we done yet?

Damn that's a bit of fare box revenue the CTA has to write off from now on... good luck making the fare box recovery ratio now.

That's a great point I hadn't thought of (not that I supported it anyways). Blago is truly an idiot.

If they are going to go this route, then I do believe that there should be a small fee. I believe the the tax rates that will go into effect will only cover operational cost. It woun't help purchase new equipment. If seniors are to ride the CTA, and the gov' want to make the burden less, seniors should pay a 1-time yearly fee of say $50 - $100 bucks, then this money could go to maintainence.

Right, so how do we know the sales tax increase will even cover the projeced deficit now? The numbers need to be re-crunched. If he wants to propose such a thing then reaserch it first and provide the funds otherwise this shit starts all over agian the next time the opperating budget is calulated. BagAssoBitch, you Fucking Assclown.

^ Perhaps it has already been studied?

Don't these people already get reduced fares!?!?!?

I don't think a LOT of seniors are pissing their pants over having to pay $35 a month for a transit pass, or .85 each ride........

I swear Blago is doing this on purpose, there's no other reason why he'd be doing this RIGHT NOW.

I love this quote from the front page of the Sun Times today!


They listed out who we should blame, and this was one of them:

Would you like to place a bet on that? What Blago has basically done is to scribble "old people no pay" in crayon at the bottom of the bill and called it an amendment.

I'm sure there are ways it could be done (i.e. money is set aside to a fund that reimburses CTA/PACE/Metra for each ride), but they haven't even done a serious study to see how much it will cost. This is not the sort of thing you spring as a surprise less than 2 weeks before a critical deadline.

Definitely a greek tragedy.
Have you seen Avenue Q? We're the Schadenfreude for the rest of the country.
(German for 'Happiness at the misfortune of others')

Unbelievable. What a bunch of loser freeloaders. And the irony is they are the conservative part of the state. You know the mantra of self sufficiency.

I think the word we're looking for is travesty.

Personally, I'm opposed to the free ride plan. If the CTA is having funding issues, why propose a way to make the system less sustainable? I just think it's a way for Blag to score political points.

Have I mentioned that I hate our Governor?

So is Avenue Q that musical with the Rated R muppets?

i have read it would be first-in-the-nation. i assume that seniors would apply for, and receive, special chicago smart cards.

i still cannot believe that he brought that up now. why not mention it effing two days ago?! twat.

It's actually a pretty complicated proposal, but you wouldn't get that by listening to Blagojevich. By having seniors ride free, and costing CTA about $20 million a year (those seem to be the estimates floating around), that actually messes with the statutory recovery ratio of system-generated revenue, which means implementing such a thing would require either a fare increase or service reduction to maintain the recovery ratio, unless the RTA Act were amended to specifically allow free senior rides to be credited as system-generated revenue, or something of that sort. Of course, such legislative minutia is of no interest whatsoever to Rod, given that he keeps pulling all of this last minute shit out of his blagojevich.