Late last month, the Illinois General Assembly failed to pass legislation to fill the $770 million 2026 Regional Transportation Authority budget deficit.
While a proposal did pass the Senate, its failure in the House was reportedly due to opposition from some suburban legislators, who balked at the proposed tax hikes. I sympathize with these legislators. The old adage “the only acceptable tax is the one that you pay and I don’t” holds firm.
Everyone wants reliable, fast, mass transit in theory, until they see the costs. “No revenue without reform” was a cute slogan to justify legislative inaction, but it ultimately seems that many suburban legislators either don’t care about funding transit or think it’s more politically costly to support tax hikes than to allow service cuts.
While I live in Chicago, I work in Lake County. I own a car, but I primarily commute via Metra. I can walk to a Metra station, and my employer provides a shuttle to and from the Metra station. I am just one of the several hundred thousand commuters who rely on Metra every day.
Metra’s various lines spread out from downtown like spokes on a wheel, just like our various major highways. If Metra is forced to make massive service cuts, myself and others will have no choice but to start regularly driving to work via the various major highways.
Who wants several hundred thousand more cars across the Edens, Kennedy, Eisenhower, Stevenson and Dan Ryan every day? Chicago area highway traffic already wastes literally billions of hours of time from commuters, who are primarily suburbanites.
Many advocates have highlighted the environmental and public health benefits of reducing car dependency by investing in mass transit. Unfortunately, it seems neither these suburban legislators nor their constituents care about that. As a scientist, that disappoints me but frankly doesn’t surprise me.
But if there’s one thing I know suburbanites care about, it’s traffic. So if these legislators think the proposed tax hikes were unpopular, they should consider how their constituents will feel when their commute is doubled because of RTA service cuts.
Because folks like myself will be sure to tell them exactly who was to blame.
Viral Mistry, PhD, Rogers Park
SEND LETTERS TO: letters@suntimes.com. To be considered for publication, letters must include your full name, your neighborhood or hometown and a phone number for verification purposes. Letters should be a maximum of approximately 375 words.
Stop foreign-influenced corporations from having sway in Illinois elections
Illinois stands at a crossroads in safeguarding its democratic process.
State Rep. Amy “Murri” Briel’s, D-Ottawa, proposed legislation, House Bill 3071, which aims to close a dangerous loophole that allows foreign-influenced corporations to spend money to attempt to sway state and local elections. This legislation is a critical step toward ensuring Illinois elections reflect the will of its residents.
The loophole stems from the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission decision, which unleashed corporate spending in elections by treating corporations as “associations of citizens” with First Amendment rights.
This ruling opened the door for foreign interests to subvert, through U.S. corporations, longstanding federal law barring foreign influence in our elections. By acquiring significant ownership stakes, foreign entities can influence or control a corporation’s political spending, including campaign contributions, super PAC donations and independent expenditures.
Companies like Amazon, Chevron and Uber — with substantial foreign ownership — have used their financial clout to shape electoral outcomes, often prioritizing corporate interests over those of Illinois voters.
Federal law already prohibits foreign individuals, governments and businesses from directly or indirectly spending money to influence U.S. elections.
Yet, the loophole undermines this ban. HB3071 would prohibit corporations from spending in Illinois elections if a single foreign investor holds more than 1% ownership or if foreign investors collectively hold more than 5%. This threshold ensures foreign investors can’t use corporations as a backdoor to influence state and local elections.
Similar laws are already in effect in Seattle and San Jose, proving that such measures are feasible. At the federal level, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., and Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., have introduced the Get Foreign Money Out of U.S. Elections Act.
The stakes are high. Foreign-influenced corporations can drown out the voices of Illinois residents, skewing policies on many matters, including labor rights and environmental protections.
Elections should reflect the will of the people, not the wealth of multinational corporations. Organizations like Common Cause Illinois and Free Speech For People, which have championed HB3071, emphasize that transparency and fairness in elections are nonpartisan values.
Illinois has a proud history of advancing democratic reforms. Passing HB3071 is the next step in helping to secure a government of, for and by the people.
Courtney Hostetler, legal director, Free Speech For People, Elizabeth Grossman, executive director, Common Cause Illinois, and
state Rep. Amy “Murri” Briel
Not your average Joe in Chicago sports
Congratulations to Joe Mansueto and the Chicago Fire on the announcement they will be building a permanent home for their team at The 78. Funding this project himself demonstrates leadership in and commitment to Chicago.
Of course, this will be Joe’s second amazing Chicago creation story. He founded and built the understated tech powerhouse Morningstar in our city, too.
He is also demonstrating to our area’s other stadium-seeking sports team owners how to get things done. There is nothing at all preventing ownership of the Bears and the Sox from doing what Mansueto is doing.
As both of these franchises are worth billions of dollars and ownership doesn’t hold any mortgages on, they both have the capability to easily raise funding for their new homes. They just don’t because they are beholden to old ways of doing business. Hopefully for the sake of the fans of those teams, they change that thinking soon.
Enough about bad news! Chicago Fire fans should be excited and proud their club is going to finally reach a higher profile in our community with an owner with big plans.
Don Anderson, Oak Park
Readers’ letters are crucial
As one of your serious readers who gets inspired, not just informed, by your ethically-robust, socially-committed journalism, I am profoundly touched by your democratic decision to nurture, enhance and publicly advocate for a genre of writing that our democracy needs now more than ever: “Letters to the Editor.”
Although editorials (before they were cut), columns and op-eds tend to get more attention and, therefore, are considered more prestigious than “Letters to the Editor,” the latter, ultimately, are the only proactive and on-the-spot genre of writing that is based on the letter writer having actually read what was previously published by your columnists and journalists before the letter gets written.
Therefore, Letters to the Editor constitute democratic dialogue extraordinaire through and through because letters directly engage in dialogue with your journalism.
Thank you for enriching and helping sustain our democracy!
Alejandro Lugo, Park Forest
Stop shunning sharks
This summer, the world celebrates the 50th anniversary of “Jaws,” the blockbuster that forever changed how we think about sharks. But while the film may be a thrilling piece of cinema, its impact on real-life sharks has been devastating.
Fear-based myths have fueled decades of misunderstanding, leading to widespread indifference toward the alarming decline in shark populations. In truth, sharks are vital to ocean health, and by extension, the health of our planet. These apex predators help regulate ecosystems and keep marine life in balance.
We must move beyond fear and embrace science, compassion and conservation. With shark populations plummeting globally, now is the time to act. Stronger protections, habitat preservation and public education are urgently needed.
Let’s use the “Jaws” anniversary to rewrite the story. Instead of fear, let it be a call for respect and action. Our oceans, and our future, depend on it.
David Stuart, Forest Park
Cardinal shouldn’t have a say
Cardinal Blase Cupich is not in favor of legislation that would allow the terminally ill to end their own lives. But don’t those individuals get to choose to what they want to do? After all it is their lives.
Why should the Catholic Church tell you that you can’t do it? Cardinal Cupich isn’t in my shoes, so he has no right to tell me what I can do and what I can’t do. Let the person die the way she or he chooses. If I was dying and there was no hope that I would live, then I would choose the way I wanted to go.
Gerald Bernson, Tinley Park
Pope, positivity and popcorn
Is it just me, or does the Chicago area seem to have a slightly euphoric feeling about it since the election of homegrown Cardinal Robert Prevost as pope?
With all due respect to the pontiff, who is a White Sox fan, this feeling reminds me of when the Cubs clinched the World Series in 2016 — the first time in 108 years. Only this time, the feeling is more pronounced because there’s never been a pope from the U.S., let alone from our Windy City.
Evidence of this euphoria abounds — a popular local joint unveiled a new “heavenly” sandwich named after Pope Leo XIV, Chicago area residents affectionately are referring to him as “Da Pope,” and some are proposing a fifth star be added to the official Chicago flag in his honor, etc.
My family is planning a visit to the Vatican in June as part of our summer vacation. I’m considering bringing along some of our city’s famous caramel and cheese popcorn mix for the pope. I’m sure he would appreciate this reminder of home, and it just may get me to the front of the line at the Sistine Chapel.
Stacy Seiden, Northbrook
Evidence president can burn down higher ed: Trump University
After reading Wednesday’s front-page story about the Trump administration’s possible plans to revoke student visas at the University of Illinois, I thought about the president’s “expertise” on education.
Between 2005-2010, he headed his name-sake Trump University. The program never gained accreditation. Indeed, the New York attorney general’s office sued the so-called university for illegal business practices. Three lawsuits were also filed, claiming that Trump U defrauded students who paid for seminars. Although Trump publicly claimed he would never settle, he in fact in 2016 after becoming president settled for $25 million! Some education expert!
I wish Harvard — which has stood up to Trump — other universities, including U. of I. and leading Democrats from around the country would more loudly expose Trump as an educational fraud as was his “university.”
Fred Case, Lincoln Park
Wearisome ‘Whataboutism’
Mona Charen’s recent column on Donald Trump’s “Whataboutism” is spot on. Such responses to criticism are often juvenile and akin to a 10-year-old caught stealing the chocolate milk asking “what about” his brother stealing the cookies.
Unfortunately, in politics, the strategy can be successful. Some politicians are adept at such distraction techniques, and unfortunately, they’re not above such cynicism. Their “bad acts” are OK if everyone else is acting that way.
Mayor Brandon Johnson, when criticized for suggesting his hiring is racially motivated, responds by pointing out Trump’s hires are predominantly white men. Many individuals will cling to a politician’s whataboutism if they are conducting themselves in the same manner, or they are a supporter of the politician allegedly committing the “bad deed.”
Fifty years ago, when I responded to my father’s critique of my driving by saying everybody was speeding, he would remind me that wrong is wrong and “everybody is doing it” is not an excuse.
Terry Takash, Western Springs
Picture imperfect
The recent Sun-Times story on fake IDs closely resembling real IDs should be required reading for the geniuses who argue for picture IDs as a voting requirement. Their naivete is stunning. For all the political shenanigans that plague Illinois, requiring voter signatures is one Illinois gets right.
Jim Halas, Norridge