By Ted Slowik
DuPage County Board Chairman Robert Schillerstrom is pushing legislators to approve a half-cent increase in sales tax in order to generate a local revenue source to pay for public transportation improvements. Do you buy it?
On the one hand, there is merit in a proposal that would allow local authorities to capture federal revenue which otherwise would be forfeited due to lack of matching funds. And it's a lousy situation when CTA, Metra and Pace compete against each other for the limited share of state funding available for public transportation.
But is public transportation the best use for a higher sales tax, if it's approved? Given our love of automobiles, would it be better to put that money toward highway infrastructure maintenance and improvements, especially in light of the tragic bridge collapse in Minnesota?
There used to be a lot of money for infrastructure improvements, until Jan 2001. Since then, a host of irresponsible tax cuts and a TRILLION dollar war that makes us LESS safe have left far too few resources available for bridges, roads, transit, schools, help for verterans, students, parents, the poor and the elderly.
The reality is that it costs money to live someplace that is nice - someplace with roads and bridges that don't fall and schools that work and water that is clean and college that is affordable and health care that is available and all the rest. If the Europeans can do it why can't we???
Vote to bring America back to greatness - not by blowing things up but by building things. Not by killing people but by saving lives and creating lives via education. These are the purposes of government. Bring America back to greatness - Vote Democratic!!
You're kidding yourself if you think that voting for a particular political party is going to make everything wonderful. If they weren't spending money on the war they'd be wasting it on something else. Each party has their pet projects and I am not convinced that one party's are better than others.
It's not like it matters because anyone who has observed the government over the last decade should be able to see that nothing meaningful is ever going to get accomplished. Both parties are more interested in keeping the other party from getting a legislative victory than they are in doing something to help the country, so they'll keep playing this game of screw the other guy while all major problems are being ignored. But at least there's still room for each congressman's pointless pork-barrel project.
I don't know why this got turned into a discussion on the war, but for the record, the war will end in its own time no matter who is elected president. So many Americans seem to think that the moment Hillary or Obama get in the White House, everything is going to be wonderful and the war will instantly end. The hypothetic Democratic president will realize it is a lot easier to call for the end to the war than it is to end it. Plans need to be made for who's going to take over the jobs the troops are doing once they leave, and evacuating the entire army will take six months or more once it begins. Hopefully by January 2009 the troop withdrawal will already have begun, and all this talk about which candidate is going to get the troops out faster will prove to be a moot point.
As to the original question, we need public transportation and it's looking like no one wants to pay for it. Even if only a small percentage of people use it, those still add up and we'd be a lot worse off without it. Road construction is always going to find money just because so many people use it. I say use the sales tax money for this because it might be the only way to find funding for an essential resource that isn't at the top of anyone's funding list.
What an encredibly naive, supercilious, and tragically shortsighted position to take on the issue of regional transit. Included in the current proposed legislation is a quarter of one percent tax precisely for more road improvements, placed there specifically as an incentive for lovers of automobiles to get more funds for their beloved roads. Yet this isn't enough! No doubt if that 1/4 percent for roads were removed, and the 1/4 of a percent for public transit were permitted to be divided up any way the shortsighted politicians and media wanted, it still wouldn't be acceptable, unless or until all of the 1/4 of a percent assigned for public transit were entirely permitted to go to road improvements. Perhaps we should ask the question, "Since most Americans love large new homes in new subdivisions over older housing stock, wouldn't it be a better policy to take whatever tax incentives there are for older home improvements and apply them to the new houses?" Because America has more trucks and truck drivers involved in the business of transporting goods around the country compared to rail, should we place more emphasis on truck and road improvements versus the national rail system? Naive you say? Shortsighted? You bet.
When gas gets to be $6 and $7 a gallon, the regions of the country with the best general infrastructure for getting people and manufactured goods from place to place will thrive, those with less, won't. Large economic regional world powerhouses didn't get there by neglecting mass transit. We won't either. If this proposed regional fix for transit fails, then for every $100 you and I spend on books, clothing, food, services, etc., we can enjoy choking on the lousy quarter we saved in our righteous indignation and ignorant foolishness. I have no interest in choking on a quarter.
No way I am supporting a tax increase to help subsidize public transportation. Having public transportation (bus, train, etc) only invites more of the "undesirables" into our Naperville community. They will take a bus into the area and see how great a place it is to live and decide "I want to live here to". That will bring home values down, bring in uneducated kids into our school system and make us another Cicero. Public transporation in Naperville? NO WAY!
Yes, Ted, spending money on public transportation is the best use of transportation tax dollars. If we continue to cave to the frivolous desires of our car-loving culture, we'll drive ourselves broke. Highways are extremely expensive to maintain, yet we continue to build new ones without any plan for how we're going to pay for maintenance. It's short-sighted and irresponsible, leaving the next generation to pay for it all. Public transit costs less to move the same number of people -- it's more efficient, and it's precisely why the Europeans are doing well. Cities around the country are learning these lessons -- as their aging freeways are due for replacement, many are realizing its smarter to tear it down and replace it with standard streets supplemented with transit.
And Kenny, I hope you're being sarcastic. If not, where did you come from? One, nobody from the city is going to see Naperville and actually want to live there. Two, if Naperville did create such a great demand, basic economics would mean home values would go up, not down. But people would rather live in Chicago, which is why home value are higher in my neighborhood than yours. Three, if anything, Chicago should be fighting to keep Naperville from getting public transit so people like you have a harder time coming to my neighborhood.
Chicago has been subsidizing suburban expansion long enough. It's time we start weaning you off of your expensive car obsession.
I'm scanning that last post for sarcasm, but if it's there it's a little too subtle. Yet, it's hard to believe you're actually serious about this. Do you think poor people roam the country by bus looking for nice communities to corrupt? Even if they wanted to, how would they ever move in here? You can't buy a house for under $200,000, and that effectively excludes any "undesireables" as well as many desireables who are well educated and sadly are not adequately reimbursed for their efforts. Please tell me you're kidding.
Mrs. Magee, no I am not kidding. Ever heard of "renting"? That's what happens when undesireables do when they find a nice community with great schools. They RENT. Then, they get all the advantages that us homeowners get without having to pay property taxes. If we have more public transportation that is what will happen! Wake up and smell the coffee!
I'm embarrassed that someone like Steve Zielinski lives in Naperville; he must be a recent "new money" transplant. I really hope he wasn't raised here. He is the type of person that gives this town such a bad name in the eyes of many other communities. Just because someone makes less money than you does not make them undesirable, by which I assume you mean they're criminals.
I was raised here in Naperville and live here in the historic district, and yes, I RENT. I make very little money because I'm a musician, but I don't have a criminal record nor would I ever dream of committing a crime based on my economic standing. As a matter of fact, most of the vandalism in our town is committed by our very own teenagers, and Nequa Valley High School is reportedly a good (if not the best) location for drug purchases. Some of the worst crimes here have been committed by highly respected members of our community (soccer coach sex scandals, the Lemak murders). So before you point the finger of blame at "undesirables," I suggest you clean your own backyard.
Getting back to the issue at hand, I would gladly welcome (and would pay for) better public transportation because that is what the future will need. We cannot continually support the gas-guzzling ways of our country and expect to survive, and public transportation is a huge tool in the alleviation of the upcoming crisis. I agree ENTIRELY with Chris Magee's first post. Well said, my friend. I'm confused about his second one though. It sounds more like Zielinski's.
Kenny, I have heard of renting, since I am one of those people who rents in Naperville. And I have a college degree and don't have any kids using your precious school system. I came here because of a job, just like most other people. Naperville needs people to work at its restaurants and gas stations and Starbucks too, and it can't all be teenagers. Every town is going to have some lower class, lower income people who do the lower wage jobs. You can't expect people to drive really far to work for minimum wage. Instead of begruding people access to Naperville's schools, you should be happy that their kids will have the chance to better themselves. That's how people get ahead in America. One generation works hard to provide opportunities for their kids so they can move up the ladder. If you insist on separating all the "desireables" from the "undesireables," you just perpetuate the class problems in our country. Someone's still paying property taxes for rental property. There are no free rides.
And I'm a mister, not a misses.
I cannot believe the snobbery that is existing on this board. Hey, I live in Dist. 203 and I rent! I must be an undesirable (which, by the way, is how you actually spell that word)...OR I am newly married, a Naperville North alumni, and a college graduate with a desire to live near my parents and near the BNSF line since my husband commutes downtown to work at a law firm, but we cannot afford the horribly inflated housing prices at this point in our lives. Did you ever consider who actually uses the Pace Bus in Naperville? It's the hundreds, probably thousands, of commuters that are unable to park at the Metra station because there is a 9-year waiting list for a parking permit. I don't think most of those people are "undesirable". I think you should all be ashamed of yourselves. That attitude is exactly what gives the City of Naperville a horrible reputation.
Mandy brings up an excellent point. From my (extremely) limited experience with the public transportation in Naperville. (I've only rode the bus a couple times, and it was because I couldn't park in the train lots.) The people who are riding these buses are businessmen and people who have jobs in the area. With the epic wait to get a parking pass to park at the train station, what else are they supposed to do? For a lot of households I'd imagine it's not practical to pick someone up and drop them off at the train every day.
I just love the attitude of "attracting undesirables." It is just so Naperville.
Maybe Ms. Magee and Mandy should move to Bolingbrook where the taxes are lower and so is the cost of living....