big day in Springfield

January 9th, 2008 at 08:33am Aaron Chambers

Lawmakers return to Springfield today and, at least in the House, are expected to make another run on plans to bail out Chicago-area mass transit systems.

Late last year, both of those plans failed to clear the House.

The first, long supported by House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, would raise the sales tax in Chicago and the suburbs. The second, supported by Gov. Rod Blagojevich, would shift nearly $400 million in existing fuel tax revenue to the mass transit systems. (How would the state replace that revenue, which currently is earmarked for other needs? There is no specific plan.)

We’ll have much more on this later, but for now here are a couple variables to consider:

1) The standard for passage of either bailout plan has changed. Prior to Jan. 1, lawmakers needed three-fifths majorities in both chambers of the Legislature to pass either plan. Now they need only simple majorities. Presumably, this empowers Madigan by making it easier for he and his fellow Democrats, who control the House but do not have a super-majority, to advance one or both of the bills. Then again, Madigan might actually prefer for at least a few Republicans to be on board; the other party, therefore, would share any political pain.

2) Many downstate lawmakers continue to maintain that they will not support a bailout of Chicago-area mass transit systems until the state also approves a capital construction plan for the entire state. Previous versions of a capital plan have promised more than $100 million for Rock River Valley infrastructure projects. Madigan has sought to keep any mass transit bailout separate from a statewide capital plan.

3) If lawmakers do insist on running a capital plan at the same time as a mass transit bailout, then how do they pay for the capital plan? Over the last year, lawmakers increasingly focused on gambling expansion as the way to generate new tax revenue necessary to finance roads, bridges and other infrastructure. But they haven’t yet agreed on a specific plan for more gambling, either.

A recap: First, there is no agreement on where to find the money for Chicago-area mass transit systems. Second, there is no agreement on whether to link a mass transit bailout with a statewide capital plan.

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