Jim Wooten has written a great editorial on the so-called "secret" provision that was inserted into the state budget and commuter rail in general:

The very worst reason to launch commuter rail to Lovejoy is that $87 million in federal money has been "earmarked" for it. That means an individual in Congress, without weighing whether it's a project that makes economic or transportation sense, was able to slip money in the federal budget to spend in his district.

Whereupon a groundswell of support materializes. Why? Not because it's met any cost-benefit standard. Not because it provides actual relief for traffic gridlock that "is among the worst in the nation." Not because responsible people, weighing how best to allocate a finite sum of money to serve the public's transportation needs, chose commuter rail. Not either because somebody has decided it represents a sound investment of taxpayer dollars.

No. None of these. The "why?" is simple. It's considered free money. It's me getting your money. You're paying; I'm benefiting.

The fair and responsible thing to do would be to let voters decide whether they want to subsidize rail locally. If they value it, they'll give permission to tax themselves. But importantly, they can no longer pretend it's free.