CTA and the Alderman

I am a CTA commuter. The 147, 36, 22, and Red Line are all familiar to me. I take the Blue Line to O'Hare when I am leaving from the office on a trip. I highly value a public transportation system that works, is clean, and is reliable.

I find it disingenuous, at best, that Alderman Moore is just now stepping up to the plate to badmouth CTA. And then holding a hearing. This brings me back to the 1998 Senate hearings on the IRS, held by Bill Roth of Delaware, who I think was angling for votes at the time. He lost the following election.

Roth's hearings were characterized by perjury that went unpunished (by his star witnesses) and an anti-IRS bias that led to new legislation effectively shutting down the agency because employees were afraid to enforce the tax laws. The result is a growing tax gap, which remains unclosed because Congress and the Senate can never adopt a consistent approach to revenue collection. Case in point: Congress wants the gap closed, but won't pay for additional IRS employees to audit and collect unpaid taxes. However, they will pay for collection agencies to do the job, at a higher cost and less return on investment, than for new IRS employees. The Commissioner testified to this last spring and it is part of the record.

Anytime legislators inject themselves into a pet agency, whether to help or hinder, in the long run they are a hindrance. The bureaucrats wind up performing paper exercises to ensure 'i's are dotted and 't's crossed, rather than get the real work done.

So what has this to do with CTA and Moore? I expect this to be another political circus. Moore suspects problems at CTA, and a good, independent auditing firm could propably identify inefficiencies and propose best practices to overcome them. However, that action is best taken outside the limelight of political sideshows that are more concerned with votes than real reform. If Moore really wants reform at CTA then let him propose that an open competition be held for an independent auditor, and then let the auditor determine where the problems are. The auditor can also come up with industry best practices, and CTA can be held accountable for implementing them. Along the way, we have to know if the funding mechanism and fare structure are rational and sustainable. If not, what changes are needed?

The current state of the CTA, with its deferred maintenance and rehab projects, is bound to lead to delays. It is incumbent upon the leadership of the agency to use their funds wisely as they complete these activities and put in place a sensible maintenance schedule. Public transportation will become our lifeblood as fossil energy resources decline and the automobile loses viability as a primary transport method. Simply calling for hearings, during voting season, is no substitute for a well crafted process for assessing the current baseline of cost and performance, identifying the targets we need to meet, and then determining how to close the gap and keep it closed.

So far, Alderman Moore has not demonstrated any interest in the substantive real work that faces the CTA in achieving those goals, let alone the goals themselves. He has, however, demonstrated an interest in using CTA as a means to re-election. Not with my vote he won't.