Transportation Dept confirms Chicago Transit Authority over-billed taxpayers

Transportation Department officials confirmed at least part of a charge that the Chicago Transit Authority was over-billing taxpayers, although a watchdog group probing the issue still suspects that a “politically-motivated cover up” is masking the extent of the problem.

“The Chicago Transit Authority collected more federal aid than it should have after inflating mileage covered by its bus routes, the U.S. Transportation Department said,” Bloomberg reported yesterday. “The Federal Transit Administration in April ordered the Chicago system to revise its 2011 tally of revenue-producing miles, which helps determine U.S. funding, and to change the way it counts mileage from now on, FTA Administrator Peter Rogoff said in a statement.”