Now what? That lingering question remained at week's end after the Illinois General Assembly approved a bailout package for Chicago area mass transit systems. The massive commuter network had faced a threatened shutdown scheduled to take effect today.

The $500 million bailout plan will be financed by a quarter-cent sales tax increase in Cook County and its surrounding counties in northeastern Illinois. The plan also includes free mass transit rides for senior citizens, a feel-good idea that could open the door to other problems.

Here's one. Senior citizens are heavy users of mass transit; who will replace the fare revenues they once paid for bus and train rides?

Here's another. Only senior citizens who live within transit districts that have fixed routes (translation: not Southern Illinois or other rural downstate communities) will be eligible for free mass transit rides in the Chicago area. How will this be enforced? Will it?

As both feared and forecast, the mass transit plan does absolutely nothing for Southern Illinois. There also are concerns that this action on Chicagoland mass transit will make it even tougher for state lawmakers to successfully engineer a capital improvement program.

As long as downstate votes were needed to OK the mass transit bailout, there was at least a chance to link the bailout to a long-needed capital improvement bill - which would fund school construction in Southern Illinois, allow the work to begin on a nearly $50 million Transportation Education Center for Southern Illinois University Carbondale, and fund highway and infrastructure improvements.

We had leverage as long as the bailout and capital bills were inseparable, and the Southern Illinois lawmakers who refused to consider one proposal without the other should be thanked for their determination and perhaps remember favorably on Election Day.

Senators Gary Forby, D-Benton, and John Jones, R-Mount Vernon, held the line and voted "no." Representatives Mike Bost, R-Murphysboro, John Bradley, D-Marion, and Brandon Phelps, D-Harrisburg, also voted "no."

Thank you, gentlemen.

Voting "yes" for the mass transit bailout were representatives Kurt Granberg, D-Carlyle, and Dan Reitz, D-Steeleville.

Senator David Luechtefeld, R-Okawville, did not vote.

What were you thinking, gentlemen?

Although the approval of mass transit relief and free rides for seniors came with assurances from Gov. Rod Blagojevich on an eventual capital improvement bill, it wouldn't make sense for anyone to hold their breath. Especially not in Southern Illinois. We know talk is cheap. We've heard it before.

Let's stop the talk and get to work. We expect our state lawmakers to deliver a capital improvement plan that builds schools, bridges, roads and infrastructure - a plan that includes a revenue source as well as a "to-do" list.

But don't blame us for feeling a little discouraged. We agree with Bost's analysis of the vote that empowered mass transit relief for Chicago without bringing anything to Southern Illinois - aside from Blagojevich's stated plan to pursue a capital bill this spring.

"We as downstaters should have stood together," Bost said.