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.
by jboullion | Jul 12, 2011 | Uncategorized
From The Political Environment, a blog by James Rowen:
Milwaukee’s Common Council will decide this week whether to move the downtown streetcar plan forward, so let’s get involved and help make it happen.
Check out www.themilwaukeestreetcar.org . . . .
Make sure you email support to mayor@milwaukee.gov with copies to Council Pres. Willie Hines at whines@milwaukee.gov and Alderman Michael Murphy at mmurph@milwaukee.gov.
Here are major benefits to the long-delayed system:
Transportation:
· Improves transit mobility to and between key residential, employment and activity centers.
· Maximizes transit accessibility and choices for residents, employees, and visitors. Accessible, low floors for level boarding for disabled, elderly, strollers, bikes. Service every 10-15 minutes.
· Has increased transit use in general in cities where it has been added to complement the existing bus system.
· Provides a downtown core starter system that can be expanded in the future to provide a larger more effective transit network (NW to 30th Street Industrial corridor; NE to Columbia St Mary’s UWM; West to Marquette, Miller Park, Research Park; S through Walkers Point, Bay View to airport; SW to Jackson Park.)
Complete post here.
by jboullion | Jun 14, 2011 | Uncategorized
From an article in BizTimes Daily:
A coalition of southeastern Wisconsin civic, educational and business leaders is asking the state Legislature to restore state funding for mass transit in the region.
The coalition sent a letter to state senators and Assembly members Monday, calling on legislators to refrain from making the cuts outlined in Gov. Scott Walker’s budget repair bill. The letter said mass transit is vital to the economic future of southeastern Wisconsin economy.
The letter was co-signed by Kenosha Mayor Keith Bosman; Cudahy Mayor Anthony Day; St. Francis Mayor Al Richards; South Milwaukee Mayor Tom Zepecki; Racine Mayor John Dickert; Oak Creek Mayor Richard Bolander; Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele; Greater Milwaukee Committee President Julia Taylor; Racine Area Chamber of Commerce President Michael Kobylka; South Suburban Chamber of Commerce President Barbara Wesener; KenoshaArea Business Alliance President Todd Battle; University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Chancellor Michael Lovell; University of Wisconsin-Parkside Chancellor Deborah Ford; Milwaukee Downtown Executive Director Beth Nicols; Devin Sutherland of Downtown Racine Corp. BID #1; Mike Fabishak of Associated General Contractors Greater Milwaukee; and Tom Rave of The Gateway to Milwaukee.
The letter stated:
“In the current economy, creating, maintaining, and connecting people to private sector jobs is a top priority. The state budget proposal to drastically reduce state funding for already severely strained transit systems in SE Wisconsin would threaten economic growth by making it harder or impossible for workers to get to jobs and discourage employers from locating or expanding in Wisconsin. . . .
by jboullion | May 10, 2011 | Uncategorized
From an editorial in The New York Times:
None of the money in Monday’s announcement will be going to Wisconsin, for example, where Gov. Scott Walker has also decided that his strapped state could do without rail improvements and the construction jobs that go with them. Nor will it go to Ohio, where Gov. John Kasich preferred rejectionism to the improvement of rail service among the state’s largest cities, which could have produced 16,000 jobs.
Instead, it will go to 15 states that have more farsighted leadership, who understand the important role federal dollars can play in stimulating the economy, moving people quickly from place to place and reducing tailpipe emissions. Some of those states are led by Republicans: Gov. Rick Snyder of Michigan happily stood beside Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood on Monday to accept nearly $200 million to upgrade the rail line between Dearborn and Kalamazoo, the bulk of the Chicago-Detroit corridor.
