Complaining that mass transit funding is "not on anyone's radar screen" in Springfield, Mayor Daley warned Wednesday of more painful CTA service cuts unless lawmakers provide both capital and operating assistance and relax rules governing pensions, health care and private contracting.

The mayor stressed that he's not talking about turning low-ridership bus routes over to private companies. CTA bus drivers "do a good job," he said.

But Daley said there's money to be saved by privatizing "some of the internal stuff" -- and the General Assembly can help the CTA help itself by relaxing rules governing pensions, health care and private contracting.

"If you're 99.9 percent unionized, which it is, you need some flexibility. They need some help because . . . their labor costs go up. Their pension and health care goes up," Daley said.

"Then last year, the General Assembly passed a bill that they have to come up with X amount of money to fill the pension right from operating costs of the CTA. It's impossible. . . . Where do they get their money? They're not in the lottery business. . . . It's unbelievable."

Daley said the Legislature "needs to reform the 1983 RTA Act to address present day realities." But he's not optimistic with the governor's health care plan and gross receipts tax on the agenda.

"One of the failures basically of mass transit -- it's not on anybody's radar screen, unfortunately," he said.

The pension payment requirement was tucked into a budget bill in the waning hours of the spring 2006 legislative session to address a crisis that has CTA pensions currently funded at roughly 33 percent.

It requires the CTA to make annual contributions to its pension funds, beginning in 2009, in hopes of reaching a 90 percent funding level by 2058. CTA officials have pegged the annual cost at $200 million.

Last year, House Speaker Michael J. Madigan (D-Chicago) issued a harshly worded letter warning the CTA not to expect any more money to cover its pension obligations. If the CTA fails to make the $200 million payment, the state will take money out of CTA operating funds, the speaker said.

In light of that demand, rules changes governing CTA pensions are not in the cards, Madigan spokesman Steve Brown said Wednesday.

"That's how they got themselves into the problem that exists today -- by diverting pensions contributions to use them for operating expenses," Brown said.

http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/328447,CST-NWS-daley05.article