What’s so scary about a train? Is Blaska right, is that why people voted for Walker, or is there a whole lot more to it? And what happens if they are successful? We lose jobs and millions of dollars in our Wisconsin economy. It makes no sense.
THE PROCESS HAS SUCKED
Now, I’m not a fan of how the DOT, the governor and the Mayor have handled things. The public process has been awful. Last minute meetings with little notice and a public input process that seems like it is just going through the steps because they have to. Major decisions made (where the station will be), then we get to chime in on the details (what will the station look like). I think the station location is the wrong one. Yahara Station would have been better.
TRAINS, I GET IT
Additionally, I’m not a huge train proponent, but I get it. I’ve traveled in Europe and I’d love to have something like that here on a much smaller scale. It was so cool to get a train pass and travel from city to city, get downtown in the city we travel to, spent the day there then go back where we were staying. If I could get to Minneapolis and Chicago and Milwaukee quickly and conveniently and not have to drive and have a simple, reliable, frequent ground transportation system once I get there , I would visit those places more often. Especially if there is a late night train back to Madison. And I think many, many, many others would too. I think I like the idea of high speed rail even better than commuter rail.
OTHER IMMEDIATE BENEFITS
Of course, then there are the benefits to the environment.
And the jobs. And the economy. Which is why the Republicans allegedly won, right? And that’s the part I really just don’t get. The economics of stopping this project make so sense. If I’m understanding the information I’ve been able to dig up/provided by our Forward Lookout spy network, here’s a few reasons why.
1. The State has already spent $100M on the project, if we stop, we might have to pay that back to the federal government. Does the state have that kind of money to send back if its already been spent? Plus, it’s only going to cost the taxpayers $750,000 per year to run the train, we could probably run the train for almost 100 years with that money with inflation.
2. If we give that $100,,000,000 back to the federal government it will be taken out of the Wisconsin economy and sent somewhere else. Many of the people who are working on the project now would lose their jobs. And then the income they make would not be recycled in our local economy.
3. Now times that $100M by 8 and you have the $810 million in ARRA funds are 100% Federal. We would be taking that 8 times larger portion of that money out of our economy and sending it somewhere else.
4. And the jobs and the impact on the economy would also be greatly increased. Think of all the people working out there doing things like planning, engineering, working on safety issues, doing soil testing, surveying, etc etc etc. Take that work and that impact on the economy, and what are we going to replace it with?
5. And, we’re going to lose a major business and good jobs for Milwaukee. When Governor Doyle bought the 2 train sets in 2009, the manufacturer, Talgo, agreed to construct a plant in Wisconsin for assembling the trains for systems around the U.S. It could employ up to 300 people in good paying jobs.
I’m hoping Doyle is stopping the project to make these points, loudly and clearly. And the Mayor will sing along. Showing what it would mean for jobs and our Wisconsin economy, which again is allegedly why the Republicans won. I’m hoping that more information about these impacts, contrary to their rhetoric, come to light. Think about the impacts on just the Great Dane and Monona Terrace as shown here by channel 3. And how many more jobs that might be.
Now is probably the time to speak up. Let Doyle (http://www.wisgov.state.wi.us/contact.asp) and Mayor Dave (mayor@cityofmadison.com) know, this doesn’t make sense for Wisconsin and our economy. People need these jobs. That is what the stimulus money was about and although I would have done things differently, to take that money away now, would do way more harm than good. You also might want to let them know, that while you support the train, you’re not too happy about the way they handled it and expect them to DO BETTER!
Better yet, lets flood Scott Walker with email, letting him know what we think. I don’t know what the right email is, but info@scottwalker.org or countyexec@milwcnty.com would probably work.
Great re-cap. I hope this is an effort by Doyle to illustrate the number of jobs and businesses that could be affected by cutting the project all together. I’m happy that some of the newspaper articles have had quotes from the engineering companies and from a Talgo rep. indicating how many people they would have to cut from their payroll. All of this against the backdrop of Walker and republicans wanting to “open the state for business” and create 250,000 jobs.
The response I got from Walker’s office . . . which I expected . . . but I didn’t expect they couldn’t tell me who to contact??!
Dear Ms. Konkel,
State issues cannot be handled or forwarded through the County office. Within the next week, a transition office will be opened that will accept this type of inquiry. We do not have any numbers for that at this time.
Cheryl Berdan
Policy Advisor
County Executive’s Office
901 N. 9th St. Room 306
Milwaukee, WI 53233
414-278-4211
fax: 414-223-1375
And let’s not forget (with respect to the jobs issue) that Gov.-elect Walker has pledged to cut 4000 state jobs that are currently open (http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/98044109.html). Of course, we don’t know the source of funding for those jobs, but what do details matter? Does the 250,000 mean a net of 250,000 over the number who were employed on the day of the election, or 250,000 more than the number remaining by the time Walker gets his first cuts in place?
Not to take traffic away from Brenda’s blog – but we are all pretty friendly here – here’s a link to some thoughts of mine:
http://frontporchcoffeetalk.blogspot.com/2010/11/stopping-train-bluff-political-maneuver.html
Robbie, I’ve been so bad at linking lately, feel free to nudge people in your direction, its all good stuff!
Looks like Walker is already having second thoughts:
Scott Walker asks train maker Talgo to remain open here
http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/106790123.html
Are we surprised?
NY isn’t pussy-footing around. Gov-elect Cuomo wrote to the Feds:
Hon. Ray LaHood
Secretary
U.S. Department of Transportation
1200 New Jersey Ave., SE
Washington, DC 20590
Dear Secretary LaHood:
High speed rail could be transformative for New York–with the potential to revitalize Upstate New York’s economy with construction jobs now and permanent jobs created by the new high speed rail links to New York City, Toronto and Montreal in the future. That is why I made high speed rail a priority during my campaign, and that is why it will continue to be a top priority for me as Governor.
To date, New York has received only a small fraction of federal money for high speed rail, but we want to make it a success now, and my Administration will aggressively pursue all funding opportunities to make high speed rail a reality. Recent reports have stated that incoming Administrations in other states, particularly Ohio and Wisconsin, are seeking to cancel their high speed rail projects and the hundreds of millions of dollars in federal aid associated with those projects. Therefore, I would ask you to consider redirecting the federal funding to New York because the project is a top priority.
High speed rail could be the 21st Century Erie Canal for New York State and help rebuild Upstate New York’s economy. Now is the moment to build. Thank you for the consideration and if you have any questions, please do not hesitate and call.
Best wishes,
Andrew M. Cuomo
Governor-Elect