Walker’s great train robbery sticks Wisconsin with a $60 million bill

[Scuba]

http://www.biztimes.com/blogs/milwaukee-biz-blog/2011/3/15/walkers-great-train-robbery-sticks-us-with-a-60-million-bill

Last December (seems like years ago today) thousands of protesters decried then Governor-elect Walker’s decision to reject $810 million in federal dollars to construct a high-speed rail system in Wisconsin that would link Madison to Milwaukee and Chicago.

The amount that the state “couldn’t afford” came to about $600,000 a year after federal matching subsidies. So the state ended up losing nearly a billion dollars of federal aid, thousands of engineering and construction jobs, a newly located train manufacturer in Milwaukee and countless dollars and jobs that would have occurred as a result of transit oriented development.

Rail proponents pointed out to Mr. Walker that we also stood to lose tens of millions of dollars that were badly needed for improvements to a section of state owned train tracks east of Madison as a part of the high-speed rail project.


Now, Governor Walker is making the first payment due because of that rejection. His proposed 2011-2013 budget allocates $60 million for making the improvements to the train tracks that would have been paid for with the federal gift of $810 million for high-speed rail.

Put another way, if Mr. Walker had taken a different track, we could have had a regional rail connection that form the first link in connecting the Twin Cities to Madison to Milwaukee to Chicago and points east for about $600,000 a year. Instead, we are sent a bill by Mr. Walker for $60 million.

That $60 million could have paid for the operating costs of the system for the next 100 years.

[Fuzz]

1. Can't be true. He is from the party of fiscal responsibility.

[Angry Dragon]

2. Nobody said he knew what he was doing

just the voices in his head
according to him god told him that trains were the path to the devil

[Scuba]

3. There's no crazy like god crazy. n/t

[Jackpine Radical]

4. You've been busy lately posting all kinds of great stuff.

Thanks.

[Scuba]

6. I did have to take a break to pick up recall petitions for Glen Grothman....

....Otherwise, what else could I do that offers more to my Wisconsin?

[benld74]

5. Better check to see WHO gets the WORK! winkwinknowhatImean?

[999998th word]

7. swiad

[livingonearth]

8. Walker will ruin his state then blame it all on others.

[xchrom]

9. recommend

[nykym]

10. But the jobs created

would have been shudder wait for it
UNION JOBS! - oh my!

[dragonlady]

11. He thought he could switch the train money to highways

He wanted to reward his road-building supporters by using the train money on road projects. He said this before the election and was told it wouldn't work. And it didn't--the Feds said no. But by then he couldn't do the mature thing and back down (it's not his style).

[gratuitous]

12. It didn't pay Scott Walker, so no go

No vision, no imagination. Walker and his puppet masters know the cost of everything and the value of nothing. The Koch brothers don't need railways; they have their limos and private jets. Sucks to be you if you don't have a limo or a private jet, and it's just class warfare for you to begrudge the Koch brothers their preferred means of transportation! (Nobody, in fact, gives a flying fuck about how the Koch brothers motate their useless carcasses around, but it makes them feel all tingly to think that they're victims of class warfare.)

[Shiver]

13. The stupid... it hurts....

:banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead:

[Sabien]

14. ...but the good people on talk radio don't like trains

and they're only looking out for what's best for us right?

Welcome to government by right wing talk radio.

:banghead:

[Blue Owl]

15. THANKS SCOTT!

You lying, cheating, no good sack of rotten turds.