Special Report: CTA's Fiscal Masochism

My good friends over at Chi*Town Daily News have an exclusive report about the CTA's "CTA plagued by self-inflicted fiscal problems." This story is HUGE. Excerpts: [CTA] faces a $110 million budget crunch that is due in large part to the need to make up for years of insufficient pension funding. While CTA officials have blamed a lack of state funds and Springfield politics for the current crisis, the pension debacle illustrates the extent to which the agency's financial woes are self-inflicted. The CTA's public statements have created the impression that its problems are the result of state government's refusal to provide adequate funding, rather than management troubles at the agency. The CTA pension system offers retirees premium-free health insurance. It allows some employees to retire at full pension in their 40s, after 25 years of service. The agency tightened the regulations for those hired in 2002 and later, who must be 55 to retire. By contrast, the Bay Area Rapid Transit system in northern California charges retirees a monthly health care premium, said spokesman Linton Johnson.