by jboullion | Jul 28, 2011 | Uncategorized
From an article by Tom Content in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:
A solar financing program for city residents will be unveiled Thursday at a community kickoff event at South Shore Park Pavilion.
Under the new program, Milwaukee Shines will partner with Summit Credit Union to help homeowners finance the installation costs for solar panels.
The city says a study of solar installers found financing options were a key barrier to homeowners installing panels.
“We have seen the number of solar installations increase over the past two years since our solar program began, but financing the installation can still be a challenge for homeowners,” said Amy Heart, who manages the Milwaukee Shines solar program.
Solar installers and organizers of the city’s solar program and the city energy efficiency program will join Mayor Tom Barrett and Ald. Tony Zielinski at the kickoff event, from 4 to 6 p.m.
Heart said she hoped that Summit Credit Union’s involvement in the program would help spur a long-term change in how local lenders view investment in renewable energy.
The first 20 participants in the loan program will receive $1,000 off the cost of the solar installation. The financing arrangement will supplement incentives that homeowners and owners of multifamily dwellings with up to three units can receive, Heart said.
The loans will be available for solar electric or hot water systems. Homeowners can also take advantage of a 30% federal tax credit and a Focus on Energy incentive, Heart said.
“Between a homeowner being interested in solar and moving forward, it can be about three years,” she said. “This will help a lot of installers and site assessors working in the area, and help us add solar to folks’ homes around the area.”
by jboullion | Jul 27, 2011 | Uncategorized
From an article by Larry Sanders in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:
Milwaukee aldermen voted 10-5 Tuesday to approve a modern streetcar line downtown.
In response to concerns raised by Comptroller W. Martin “Wally” Morics, aldermen agreed to limit spending to engineering for now, and to seek a review by the comptroller’s office before releasing money for construction.
The measure now heads to Mayor Tom Barrett, the plan’s chief advocate, for his signature.
Plans call for a 2.1-mile line, from the lower east side to the downtown Amtrak-Greyhound station, starting in 2014. Streetcars would run every 10 minutes on weekdays and every 15 minutes on weekends, late-night and early-morning hours.
The $64.6 million project would be funded by $54.9 million in long-idle federal transit aid and $9.7 million from a tax-incremental financing district, with fares, parking fees and advertising revenue covering the $2.65 million annual operating cost. The city is seeking additional federal aid for extensions that would add 1.5 miles to the line and boost the construction cost past $100 million.
by jboullion | Jul 26, 2011 | Uncategorized
From an article by Larry Sandler in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:
Meeting for the last time Monday, the Southeastern Regional Transit Authority ended plans for a commuter rail line linking Milwaukee to Kenosha, Racine and the southern suburbs.
The RTA also asked that $6 million congressionally earmarked for the KRM Commuter Link be redirected to the Milwaukee County, Racine and Kenosha bus systems, if legally possible.
Much of Monday’s agenda was dictated by the Legislature. In the 2011-’13 state budget, lawmakers ordered that the Southeastern RTA and its Dane County counterpart be dismantled, along with two other regional transit authorities that had been authorized but never formed.
The three-county body was planning the $284 million KRM and would have run the rail line. Plans had called for a 33-mile rail line with 15 round trips each weekday.
Unlike Amtrak’s Milwaukee-to-Chicago Hiawatha line, the KRM would have provided city-to-suburb and suburb-to-suburb service for commuters, students and shoppers. Passengers could have transferred to Chicago-area Metra trains at the Kenosha station.
Planners projected federal aid would have covered most construction and operating costs, with the rest coming from fares and a rental car fee of up to $18 a car.
But the Federal Transit Administration has held off for more than a year on approving the RTA’s request to start preliminary engineering on the KRM. Federal officials have told regional planners they were unlikely to support a new rail line until the Milwaukee County Transit System was financially secure.
However, former Gov. Jim Doyle and the Legislature, then controlled by his fellow Democrats, deadlocked on finding a new way to finance transit. The new Republican-led Legislature has since approved GOP Gov. Scott Walker’s budget plan to cut transit aid by 10% next year, slicing nearly $7 million from Milwaukee County buses.
by jboullion | Jul 20, 2011 | Uncategorized
From an article by Larry Sandler and Jason Stein:
Wisconsin taxpayers could wind up paying more to keep existing passenger train service from Milwaukee to Chicago than they would have paid to run new high-speed rail service from Milwaukee to Madison, according to a Journal Sentinel analysis of state figures.
The Legislature’s budget committee voted 12-2 Tuesday to spend $31.6 million in mostly borrowed state money on Amtrak’s Milwaukee-to-Chicago Hiawatha line, costs that could have been paid largely by an $810 million federal grant that would have extended the Hiawatha to Madison.
But Tuesday’s vote doesn’t cover all the spending that will be needed to keep running the Hiawatha, a growing service that carried nearly 800,000 passengers last year.
State transportation officials have estimated they would need millions more for locomotives, signals and a new maintenance base, even without expanding service beyond the current seven daily round trips.
And, like the spending approved Tuesday, all or most of those new costs would have been covered by the federal grant spurned by Gov. Scott Walker last year. That’s because the Milwaukee-to-Madison service would have operated as an extension of the Hiawatha, as part of a larger plan to connect Chicago to the Twin Cities and other Midwestern destinations with fast, frequent trains.
Taken together, state taxpayers’ share of the Hiawatha capital costs that would have been covered by the federal grant could total as much as $99 million, significantly more than the $30 million they would have paid for 20 years of operating costs on the Milwaukee-to-Madison segment, as estimated by former Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle’s administration.
Walker had cited those operating costs as his main reason for opposing the 110-mph extension. Federal money would have paid all of its capital costs. And that doesn’t count the other potential benefits that high-speed rail supporters have cited from the Milwaukee-to-Madison line, such as jobs, economic development, expanded tax base and improved freight rail tracks.
by jboullion | Jul 19, 2011 | Uncategorized
From an article by Jason Stein and Patrick Marley in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:
Madison – The Legislature’s budget committee voted 12-2 Tuesday to spend $31.6 million on the Milwaukee-to-Chicago passenger rail service, costs that could have largely been paid by a federal grant that would have extended passenger rail from Milwaukee to Madison.
The Joint Finance Committee voted unanimously to shift $33 million within the transportation fund to cover higher than expected winter maintenance costs.
Democrats backed the passenger rail measure. But they pointed to an estimate from the Legislature’s nonpartisan budget office that found that at least $22.4 million of the additional costs stem from Republican Gov. Scott Walker’s move to cancel an $810 million high-speed rail line connecting Madison to Milwaukee and Chicago.
All Republicans except Sen. Glenn Grothman (R-West Bend) and Sen. Joe Leibham (R-Sheboygan) also backed the measure but countered that the federal government could have still paid for part of the costs and that part of the bills also stem from a questionable contract entered into by Walker’s predecessor, Democratic former Gov. Jim Doyle.
Sen. Lena Taylor (D-Milwaukee) called the canceled contract an example of “Walker math” that is costly for the state.
“We had an opportunity to take advantage of federal funding in one of the tightest budgets in years,” Taylor said.
