Pat Quinn

Governor Pat Quinn is doing everything he can to ensure that the Illiana Tollway will be built, no matter what. The Illinois General Assembly gave the state permission in 2010 to pursue a public-private partnership with a private company to build and operate the tollway, but now Quinn has proposed new legislation that gives the tollway new special privileges.

Governor Pat Quinn’s northeastern Illinois task force released its final report [PDF] yesterday, detailing recommendations from its mid-March draft. The task force launched last year, after former Metra CEO Alex Clifford resigned to protest the commuter rail operator's long-running patronage culture.

On Tuesday, the Northeastern Public Transit Task Force, created after former Metra CEO Alex Clifford's abrupt resignation and the ensuing severance package scandal last summer, issued four different options for restructuring regional transit governance [PDF]. While there's a lot of variation among the four options, they would all hand more power to the governor. This is the wrong direction to take.

Yesterday morning, Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Governor Par Quinn announced that the O’Hare Branch of the Blue Line will receive $492 million in station and line upgrades. At the press conference at the Logan Square stop, CTA President Forrest Claypool called the project “the largest single comprehensive investment in the Blue Line since the Jefferson Park line extended to O’Hare 30 years ago.”

At a time when the CTA has been coming under fire for the glitchy launch of the Ventra farecard system, today’s ribbon cutting for the Red Line Reconstruction project was a well-earned celebration for the transit agency, and a love fest for local politicians.

A fifth Metra board member gave up his post Thursday after the Chicago Tribune wrote that Stanley Rakestraw no longer lived in suburban Cook County  – as required – and the person who appointed him, Cook County President Toni Preckwinkle, asked him to tender resignation. Board members are resigning after allegations of double dipping (for being on two governmental boards simultaneously), patronage hiring and promoting, and for giving former Metra CEO Alex Clifford a severance package potentially worth over $700,000 in exchange for keeping quiet. The full amount would be available to Clifford if he fails to find a new job.

For years, Illinois Governor Pat Quinn has been an enthusiastic supporter of walking, biking and transit initiatives. In 2001 he hiked from the Mississippi River to Lake Michigan to draw attention to the need for universal healthcare, and he later launched the Walk Across Illinois fitness challenge, encouraging residents to walk 190 miles within one year, an equivalent distance.