Furious riders and transit workers picketed and rallied outside the Chicago Transit Authority’s downtown headquarters while board members passed their 2010 budget on Nov. 12.
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The protest was fueled by the fact that the new CTA budget includes at least 1,100 job cuts, the termination of nine bus lines and tens of thousands of hours of service cuts on 110 of 150 of CTA bus routes. Under the budget, wait times on trains and buses could double, or even triple, just in time for Chicago’s extremely cold winter months. The budget is set to take effect on Feb. 7, 2010.
The demonstration was organized by NoCTACuts.org, ctariders.org and Little Village Environmental Justice Organization. Protesters yelled chants demanding that the board members step down and that the layoffs and cutbacks be stopped. Seniors at the protest also stood up to demand that the free rides for seniors program remain in place, a policy that has been targeted by lawmakers for elimination.
The protest was covered on ABC, WGN and CBS News as well as radio and print news publications.
Racist 2010 CTA budget is criminal
Just before the budget was passed, Illinois Governor Pat Quinn cut a deal that held off proposed fare hikes that would have made the CTA the most expensive public transportation system in the country. The fare hikes were taken out of the budget as a direct result of mass disapproval.
The Regional Transit Authority, the state transit agency that encompasses the CTA and the suburban Metra train and PACE bus services, will take out $166 million in loans in order to “put off” the fare hikes. The state has agreed to pay $15.3 million to cover the cost of borrowing the money.
The agreement reached between the state of Illinois and the RTA is no long-term solution for workers. CTA riders and workers will ultimately be footing the bill through taxes, fees and future rate hikes.
In fact, the deal is yet another gift to the banks. The banks will receive millions of dollars in interest payments on the loans. In 2010, the Illinois budget approves the borrowing of $3 billion from bailed out banks. Tens of millions of taxpayer dollars will flow into the banks in the form of interest payments.
The CTA budget deal only puts off fare hikes for two years and does not do anything to stop the devastating layoffs or the service cuts. The service cuts will disproportionately affect African American and Latino areas in the south and west sides that are already under serviced by the racist CTA planners.
The CTA board, all non-elected appointees of the mayor and the governor, blame the recession for the criminal budget. They say there is no money for transit or transit jobs.
That is lie. They found the money to stop the fare hikes. The money needed to stop the service cuts and layoffs exists. It represents a tiny fraction of the trillions that have been given to Wall Street, the big banks and the Pentagon in the past year.
That is the stark lesson of the economic crisis: For the people on the top, everything. For the vast majority in a time of growing need, nothing.
The Party for Socialism and Liberation calls on the people of Chicago and Illinois to join us in the struggle to stop the service cuts and layoffs and to build a nationwide movement to defeat all attempts by the capitalist government to make workers pay for the economic crisis.
Let’s work together to force Mayor Daley, Governor Quinn and the CTA board to save the much needed jobs and transit.
