Nov 29, 2008 11:33 am US/Central
Gov. To Transit Agencies: Hike Fares, Freeze Pay
CHICAGO (Sun-Times Media Wire) ―
Memo to Chicago area public transit executives: If you want to increase riders' fares, Gov. Blagojevich wants to freeze your salaries.
Blagojevich is crafting a plan that, if approved by the General Assembly, would force transit agencies that increase fares in 2009 or 2010 to hold the line on pay for all nonunion employees for those same years. If the boards that govern those agencies don't do that, the state would bar fare increases from taking effect.
The governor's proposal is a response to the CTA and Pace forging ahead with Jan. 1 fare increases. Blagojevich had said the agencies should be able to keep fares the same because they're getting hundreds of millions of new dollars annually through a transit-bailout law that raised sales taxes in Cook and the collar counties this year.
But transit leaders, particularly those at the CTA, say they need to increase fares because they've been hit with higher fuel and other costs -- including costs tied to the governor's free-rides-for-seniors program, which he insisted be part of the bailout.
Salaries for dozens of transit executives continued to rise in 2008 after state bailout money started to flow, records show. The Chicago Sun-Times Watchdogs column reported Monday that the number of Pace executives who make more than $100,000 a year increased from 13 in 2006 to 20 this year.
Pace, the CTA and RTA, the umbrella agency for the Chicago area's transit agencies, plan salary increases again in 2009, officials said.
"How about these bureaucrats who sit on the Pace board who just socked it to the ratepayers by increasing fares?" Blagojevich told reporters last week. "And what do they do with the money? They give themselves pay raises. They hire more people they don't need. They take care of their friends and their cronies at the expense of people who right now are looking at us to make their lives easier, not more difficult."
Pace officials declined to comment on the governor's tirade or the legislation he's drafting, which should be introduced to lawmakers in January. RTA and CTA officials also declined to comment.
Overall, the governor's plan could affect as many as 1,700 CTA, RTA and Pace executives and support staff, many of whom get pay increases tied to performance goals. The top-paid executives at those agencies are Ron Huberman at the CTA, $198,000; Steve Schlickman at the RTA, $214,988, and Thomas J. Ross at Pace, $182,149.
The governor is not targeting the salaries of union workers, whose wages are governed by collective bargaining agreements. And Metra employees would not immediately be affected by the governor's proposal because Metra raised fares this year and has no plans to do so in 2009. Metra's top-paid executive is Philip A. Pagano, who makes $263,049 a year.
(Source: Sun-Times Media Wire © Chicago Sun-Times 2009. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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