Mike Tryon on CTA-Roads Deal

"No Capital? No CTA!" reads the headline on State Rep. Mike Tryon's "legislative update."

It has a wonderful train analogy to describe the effect on McHenry County of the bill to bail out the Chicago Transit Authority under consideration:

"on a fast track to nowhere."

It points out that "less than one percent of those in McHenry County use mass transit."

Then Tryon writes,

"If the sponsors of Senate Bill 572 are not willing to talk about the overall transportation needs of McHenry County, I cannot support their legislation."

Is that a hint he can vote for the half percentage point sales tax increase?

A 7.7 percent increase in McHenry County's sales tax, half of which would go to the RTA (read mainly the CTA) and half to the McHenry County Board with which to build roads.

Let's read the sentence again:

"If the sponsors of Senate Bill 572 are not willing to talk about the overall transportation needs of McHenry County, I cannot support their legislation."

And, here's another hint for you to interpret at your leisure:

"I am committed to working with the sponsors of Senate Bill 572 to create a plan that addresses both mass transit and roads."

This reminds me so, so much of how an eastern Illinois ex-sheriff state representative agreed to vote for the creation of the RTA when Dave Caravello, one of Governor Dan Walker's legislative people, offered not to fire one of the Republican's road worker buddies, if he'd vote for the RTA bill.

The price is bigger here. I'll grant that.

But we had state approval to build the Western Bypass and Governor Rod Blagojevich took it away. It's a congressional earmark. When the last time IDOT didn't build a congressional earmark?

Now, it sounds as if Tryon is willing to vote for higher taxes in order to get back what was already ours.

The legislative update does not mention how more roads will be financed, but increased gambling has been mentioned widely elsewhere.

The only specific road improvement mentioned is the Western Bypass (to ease the traffic flow at Routes 62 and 31 in Algonquin). There is no mention of the Bolz Road bridge, in southern Algonquin and Carpentersville, without which the Western Bypass will not work. Local municipal and county officials seem intent on making people pay a toll to use the Bolz Road bridge (see Please Make Me Pay Twice), which means, of course, that those who don't want to pay a toll will continue to cross the Fox River at Route 62.

You can read Tryon's whole press release on McHenry County Blog. I wonder if it is a prototype for suburban Republican state representatives to use to justify voting for the deal.

And, speaking of roads, 8th congressional district Republican primary candidate Ken Arnold from Gurnee has made three interesting road proposals, two to save money and one to build a causeway across Lake Michigan. This is a man into policy.