Doomsday '07: November 2007 Archives

Before a vote on a transit funding plan that ultimately failed in the Illinois House, Governor Blagojevich left the Capitol early to attend a Chicago Blackhawks game. Talk about bad timing.

Now the governor is taking heat from state lawmakers who were called into a special session yesterday to try to hammer out an agreement on funding for the CTA, Metra and Pace.

Our Springfield reporter Dave McKinney has the story.

This morning, Gov. Blagojevich offered the CTA and Pace $27 million in grants to keep both agencies running through the end of the year and delay fare hikes and service cuts set to take effect on Sunday.

The CTA and RTA have tentatively agreed to accept the bailout, as long as the Federal Transit Administration approves the infusion of capital dollars.

Unlike the first one, this bailout is a grant, not a loan, the governor says.

My question to you is, should the CTA and Pace go ahead with the cuts anyway, to force the General Assembly to finally make a decision on long-term transit funding? Or should they just take the money and save millions of transit riders the headache?

Thoughts?