uh oh, CTA wants to raise fares (Chicago, Noble: unemployment, bankrupt)

[Chicago60614]

Originally Posted by jdiddy

Yet its on the micro level, where you see bus drivers making 60K and throwing a fit over not getting another 3.5% raise, when my entire company has been on a salary freeze for nearly 2 years now, that makes you think, 'get your ****ing heads out of your asses'.

That's my situation - year 3 of a salary freeze and I'm still just happy to have a job. The notion of running around screaming for 3.5% raises right now would just seem silly.


Also couple that with the fact that the non-union employees at the CTA are going on their FOURTH year of no salary increases, and have to take 18 non-paid days off.

Really unions? You're screaming for 3%-3.5% increases for the next 3 years when the other employees at your place of work haven't gotten anything at all in the past 4 years? I can't even imagine the divide in moral that must exist at that agency.

[scarletneon]

apparently the service issues are directly correlated with the unionized workforce. if they would just give concessions and at the very least forgo their yearly raise, there wouldn't need to be as many or any layoffs and the service cuts wouldn't have to happen.

before anyone goes into a tail spin about how they need to cut personnel and pay from the top, please remember that 90% of CTA employees are UNION, and they're still getting their raises and all their cushy benefits.
the other 10% got a 10% pay CUT (in the form of furloughs and unpaid holidays), this includes Rodriguez.
also, they've cut something like 19% or 20% of their personnel since 2007.


Avengerfire, please give me your detailed ideas for a funding solution. Because as long as we base operating funds on sales tax, and this recession continues, we're still going to be in a world of hurt, let alone Quinn's boneheaded maneuver, causing the CTA to have even more debt service to be responsible for in the future... because i doubt the state will hold up to its agreement to continue funding debt service for capital dollars after these first two years.

Because if you have any better solution that would even remotely hold up politically, besides sales and real estate transfer taxes, i'd like to hear them.

Oh, and free rides don't count, because that's painfully obvious.

[Avengerfire]

Originally Posted by supernerdgirl

...Avengerfire, please give me your detailed ideas for a funding solution...

All in the metro area counties:

1) Public transit gasoline tax.

2) Public transit driver's license surcharge.

3) Municipal vehicle sticker levy for public transit.

4) Special public transit tax on mid and large level employers that choose to locate their businesses in suburbs that are only accessible by car or very difficult to access via public transit.

CTA/Pace/Metra funding problems solved.

[scarletneon]

Originally Posted by Avengerfire

All in the metro area counties:

1) Public transit gasoline tax.

2) Public transit driver's license surcharge.

3) Municipal vehicle sticker levy for public transit.

4) Special public transit tax on mid and large level employers that choose to locate their businesses in suburbs that are only accessible by car or very difficult to access via public transit.

CTA/Pace/Metra funding problems solved.

And then what do you say to the people that will say, and I quote:

"but I don't use it so why should I pay for it with my city sticker/drivers license/etc.?"

those are pretty unpopular options politically, especially the business tax, although they make the most sense. hell, we can't even get anyone to raise the gasoline tax just to fix the roads let alone give some of it for transit!

[Drover]

In the collar counties we already pay the highest or second-highest taxes on gas in the country. You can only push people so far, especially when they look around at other nearby states and wonder how they're able to do more with less.

[Avengerfire]

Beer,Wine,Liquor,Spirits,and Tobacco cannot be taxed anymore without losing an even greater amount of total tax revenue. In fact, total tax revenue from these vices have dropped the last 4-5 years because of excessive taxes.

I know many people that have been quite upset because of those huge tax hikes over the years.

You cannot squeeze "blood out of a turnip" with these taxes.

So Mr. Quinn better start brainstorming.

I am not running for Governor-he is.

[Avengerfire]

Originally Posted by supernerdgirl

...And then what do you say to the people that will say, and I quote: "but I don't use it so why should I pay for it with my city sticker/drivers license/etc.?"...

Well lets see. I am a man. I have never used (nor could I) the WIC program, but I pay taxes that help fund it. Does that mean no men should pay taxes to help feed needy pregnant women, infants and children? If the mom goes out and becomes a crack addicted hooker to feed herself and addicts her child before birth does that not incur even greater costs for all of us in the future?

I pay insurance premiums, but yet I never use part of the costs that go to pay for other people, because for example, I cannot get pregnant nor am very unlikely to get breast cancer. If I am extremely healthy then most of what I pay goes to pay for other peoples health problems that I do not have and I will not get the full value of my payment for health insurance.

All these people (which is a huge majority of the population) that believe in ANY type of health insurance, but refuse to entertain the idea of paying taxes for public transit because they do not use it need to get their heads out of their asses. Are they so dense they do not see that the insurance system is a micro (but yet macro) example of how all of our tax systems work?!!!!!!

Crap I pay taxes that help pay for roads out in butt **** Egypt parts of Illinois yet I never drive on those roads.

Fully funding and maintaining public transit saves the need to spend as much tax money on maintaining roads and building new ones. The more public transit is used and the more area it covers in existing developed areas, the less money needs to be spent maintaining and building roads. Building and expanding roads tends to encourage urban sprawl thus requiring an ever increasing amount of money to be spent on building,expanding,and maintaining roads. As this continues,less money is allocated to maintenance,expansion,and partial subsidy of fares for public transit. As the service level and fare cost of public transit decrease, the fares and taxes must rise even further as usage drops. A truly vicious cycle. People that cannot understand the concept are goofs.

Overall, without a strong City of Chicago, the suburbs and state will fall and fail even further. Look at what has happened to Detroit, its suburbs and the state of Michigan.

Being part of a city,county,metro area,state or country is actually a lesson in a form of collectivism. However that does not mean that the very skeleton of every governmental structure is socialist, communist,fascist, etc. Those trains of thought distilled from what already existed in basic governments at some level over the millenniums.

The bloat needs to be cut out of our government budgets. There needs to be great reform. However, there are a number of taxes that need to be lowered to stimulate growth.

[Avengerfire]

Originally Posted by supernerdgirl

...the unionized workforce. if they would just give concessions and at the very least forgo their yearly raise, there wouldn't need to be as many or any layoffs and the service cuts wouldn't have to happen.

...please remember that 90% of CTA employees are UNION, and they're still getting their raises and all their cushy benefits...

If these bloated CTA unions cannot sacrifice a pay increase and take a few furlough days in a time when many people have lost their jobs,taken pay cuts, and not gotten raises for years;those unions are hopeless. They will seal their own fate.

I am all for unions just like many people are in this city. I will tell you what though. They are aiding in the shrinking and destruction of their own organizations every single time they let greed get in the way of common sense and decency while many Americans suffer.

[Irishtom29]

Originally Posted by supernerdgirl

please remember that 90% of CTA employees are UNION, and they're still getting their raises and all their cushy benefits.

Irishtom's Law of Benefits----My benefits are necessities, your benefits are "cushy".

[Irishtom29]

Originally Posted by Avengerfire

I am all for unions just like many people are in this city. I will tell you what though. They are aiding in the shrinking and destruction of their own organizations every single time they let greed get in the way of common sense and decency while many Americans suffer.

A well run union is like any other well run economic entity, you get as much as you can when things prosper and you cut your price when you have to. There's a time to grab and a time to give. This is a time for the CTA worker's union to lay low and if not give at least not grab more.