"The Politics That Are Holding Mass Transit Back"

Yesterday the Sun-Times had a pretty inane editorial calling on the Mayor of Chicago and the Governor to get beyond "the politics that are holding mass transit back" and come up with some more money for public transit.

In today's Sun-Times we got a glimpse at some of those politics. (Crain's article here.) At a press conference designed to promote his slate of aldermanic candidates for the upcoming runoff election the Mayor "warned of more painful CTA service cuts unless lawmakers provide both capital and operating assistance and relax rules governing pensions, health care and private contracting."

Political hurdle #1: The CTA apparently cannot contract out work being performed by its heavily unionized workforce. Doing so presumably would violate collective bargaining agreements and further alienate organized labor from the Mayor. Yet, the potential cost savings from contracting out some of the CTA work likely are significant. The Mayor cautiously opened the door for some legislative (or negotiated) way for the CTA to contract out some of its work:

The mayor stressed that he's not talking about turning low-ridership bus routes over to private companies. CTA bus drivers "do a good job," he said.

But Daley said there's money to be saved by privatizing "some of the internal stuff."

Political hurdle #2: The second political hurdle is even more substantial. CTA management and its unions have together presided over the financial decline of the CTA pension fund--the CTA to have more money for operations and the union to get more money into the paychecks of its members. Years of insufficient contributions have finally caught up and the CTA pension fund is running out of money.

Last legislative session, Speaker Madigan pushed through a requirement that the CTA put sufficient money into the pension fund so that it reach a 90 percent funding level in 2058, fifty-one years from now. To get there, the CTA claims it needs $200 million more each year, which just illustrates the poor current condition of its pension fund.

In today's press conference the Mayor claimed this requirement was "unbelievable" and urged that it be rolled back:

Then last year, the General Assembly passed a bill that they have to come up with x-amount of money to fill the pension right from operating costs of the CTA. It's impossible...Where do they get their money? They're not in the lottery business. They don't have toll road business ... It's unbelievable.

A representative for the Speaker replied that the Speaker had no patience for rolling back the pension funding requirement to allow the CTA to again use its pension funds as cash reserves for operations:

Last year, House Speaker Michael J. Madigan (D-Chicago) issued a harshly-worded letter warning the CTA not to expect any more money to cover its pension obligations. If the CTA fails to make the $200 million payment, the state will take money out of CTA operating funds, the speaker said.

In light of that demand, rules changes governing CTA pensions are not in the cards, Madigan spokesman Steve Brown said today.

"That's how they got themselves into the problem that exists today--by diverting pensions contributions to use them for operating" expenses, Brown said.

Political hurdle #3: As if the CTA versus unions and Mayor versus Speaker is not enough, neither the Governor nor the General Assembly appear all that interested in the kind of comprehensive and expensive public transit fix being touted by the RTA and its allies. As the spokesperson for the Speaker explained:

Asked to assess the chances for any mass transit funding, Brown said, "I've not seen it in the plans the governor has talked about. The House has really focussed more on education than anything else."

It reminds me of a saying from one of Werner Hezog's films (?) --"Every man for himself and God against all."