Posted by Ray Long and Michelle Manchir at 1:05 p.m.
SPRINGFIELD — The Illinois House today voted to scale back the number of senior citizens who get free rides on buses and trains, leaving the freebies for the poorest and raising the fare to half-price for others.
Applying the means-testing to the free ride program would generate about $37 million, said sponsoring Rep. Suzanne Bassi, R-Palatine.
The measure passed 83-27, with three voting present. The Senate also must approve and Gov. Pat Quinn must sign the measure for it to become law. You can see how the House voted by clicking here.
Under the bill, senior citizens 65 and older would keep riding for free if they qualify for the state’s circuit breaker program. A one-person household with an income of $27,610 would be eligible under the guidelines. A two-person household could have a maximum income of $34,635. The Circuit Breaker program is used to set income guidelines to give seniors property tax relief and aid to buy prescription drugs.
Seniors with higher incomes would ride at half price on the Chicago Transit Authority, Metra and Pace. That’s the same discount seniors got before then-Gov. Rod Blagojevich demanded the free ride program in return for signing a sales tax increase to bail out the bus and rail agencies two years ago.
Rep. John Bradley, D-Marion, saying he opposed the legislation, argued he refused to put bloated transit bureaucracies over senior citizens.