January 16, 2007

Gov. Rod Blagojevich amended the Chicago-area mass transit bailout last week, saying he wants the state to provide free bus and train rides for senior citizens.

But the governor’s last-minute addition has caused some confusion.

If the General Assembly approves the governor’s changes when they return to the Capitol, Illinoisans aged 65 and older will be allowed to ride mass transportation for free — but only within their local mass transit district, according to the fine print of the governor’s proposal.

In other words, downstate seniors visiting Chicago would not automatically ride for free.

Mass transportation authorities were not informed of the governor’s revision to the proposal before his press conference in Springfield Thursday. Many transit authorities are now waiting for the new law to pass at the same time they are figuring out how to follow it. In addition to requiring transit systems to offer free rides to seniors, the proposal will use the proceeds of a higher sales tax rate in the Chicago area to help boost funding for downstate transit districts.

Paul McChancy, mass transit administrator for the City of Decatur, said a system of identification cards to determine which seniors are from Decatur might be a possibility. But, he said his office would need to determine whether the convenience would be worth the cost of producing the cards.

“I don’t know that that would be something you’d even want to mess with,” McChancy said.

If the legislature goes along with the governor’s changes, Blagojevich spokeswoman Rebecca Rausch said each mass transit district throughout the state will need to revise its program in order to uphold the law. Rausch said that hopefully, mass transit authorities throughout the state will adopt programs that allow all seniors, from anywhere, to ride for free.

“It’s up to each district to enact their program, and we’re encouraging them to add rules that allow all seniors to ride for free,” Rausch said.

Jeff Nelson, general manager of the Quad Cities bus service MetroLINK, said that no clear plan yet exists for accommodating the free rides.

“We haven’t had a whole lot of time to discuss it,” Nelson said. “What we’re looking at now is having a series of town meetings to get people informed of it as well as to get the equipment that makes senior ID cards out to the communities.”

Nelson said that MetroLINK, which already has a reduced fare for seniors, expects a yearly loss of $200,000 for letting seniors ride free — about a quarter of the additional money provided for by the transit proposal.

Dava Shorb, managing director of Jackson County Mass Transit District, said the governor’s add-on has raised a lot of questions.

“My understanding is that there is no special funding for seniors, and any extra funding that districts thought they were going to get has to be applied to providing free rides for seniors,” Shorb said. “That kind of negates some of that initial planning we’ve been thinking about.”

Rausch said the benefits to downstate transit authorities are still very high, even considering the revenue lost by giving seniors free rides.

“Downstate is really faring well in terms of this legislation,” Rausch said. “Their residents aren’t being asked for new taxes and their seniors are being allowed to ride for free.”

Nelson said that while there has been a lot of activity in his office aimed at preparing MetroLINK for the new law, it all hinges on whether or not it even passes the General Assembly as it is currently written.

“We’re hoping everything that comes in the bill stays in the bill,” Nelson said. “We’ll see what finally floats out of the Capitol.”