Not a surprise when you have Democrats in charge of everything on the state level of government. I mean, of course they were going to throw money at a failing mass transit system. It's in their DNA or something.
Anyway, as a daily rider, I will actually benefit from paying a little more in sales taxes (especially since I'll just make more big purchases in Indiana or online) to keep fares down. Since I'm not a selfish a-hole, however, I realize that's not a good reason to support it.
However, I'd like to make a point about part of the plan, and why government management of anything is so stupid:
Key Illinois lawmakers appeared ready Thursday to back Gov. Blagojevich's surprise offering of free bus and train fare for senior citizens in order to avert a Jan. 20 meltdown of the CTA.
Sounds nice, right? Let old people ride for free.
Well, I'm going to analyze this in economic terms (keeping in mind I don't know much about economics). Who is most likely to ride the CTA? People who can't or don't want to drive, for whatever reason. That would be mostly people who are poor and/or old. So old people, who are more likely to ride anyway, now will ride for free. That means people who are less likely to ride (younger and more affluent) now are paying an even greater share of fares.
In addition, more old people clogging up the busses and trains (which is what will happen with free rides) will only drive younger people away since they are so slow and take up so much room.
How many private businesses would do this? Businesses understand incentives. They give senior discounts, sure, but it's to entice old people to do things they might not otherwise do. This plan is like Wal-Mart giving a 20% discount on Ensure or Metamucil for seniors.
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