A little late Round Up . . .

I had a little blogging mishap this morning, so . . . this is later than usual (luckily, I have worked lots of extra hours thanks to all these ridiculous early morning and late night meetings with funders) . . . More on the RTA and RTA and RTA, a little WYOU/cable company/WSJ editorial rant, buy a home for $1, the “new” Edgewater that we won’t show you yet but is eligible for TIF but don’t worry we made all the changes you wanted, what happened to our 400 low-income bus passes that are now only 300 and would have been less?, fall leaves and that was about all I could do cuz my 45 minutes are over and I have to get to work!  More tomorrow.

RTA UPDATE FROM FITCHBURG
Fitchburg Common Council tonight adopted a resolution urging the Dane County Board to establish the Dane County RTA by a margin of 6 to 1. Thursday the signed resolution will be mailed to the Clerk and the Supervisors representing Fitchburg, and e-mailed to all Supervisors. We are counting on our Supervisor Jack Martz to support the RTA for his constituents.

GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY LIES
Wow, this is just wrong. They are reporting the following:

10/27/09 Dane County Personnel and Public Works and Transportaton joint meeting results: It passed. No surprise there.
Public works/Trans cmte: 3-2 YES [Dave Wiganowsky and Jack Martz were the NO votes]
Personnel cmte: 6-2 YES [Ripp and O’Loughlin were the NO votes]

Speaking/voting Yes to establish a RTA: 29 people.
Speaking/Voting NO to establish a RTA: 35 people.
The total public vote was 35 NO, 29 yes.

This means it will go to the full county board Likely R Nov 5th and/or R Nov. 19.

Thanks to all who attended to speak and vote NO.
Please mark your calendars and watch for updates regarding the November vote. We need to make it clear that there is a strong base of opposition!

Um . . . 29 registered in support and 35 registered in opposition. See my theory about who they were here. What they neglect to note is that those who testified were overwhelmingly in support. There were 7 or 8 people against and 32 – 35 in support. (Depends upon who counted! Some simply asked questions and there was one I couldn’t tell what they wanted.)

$500,000 FOR THE RTA IN THE COUNTY BUDGET
Wow, I have got the county supervisors attention. They sure are quick to point out if you say something you disagree with or spell their name wrong. I guess they’re not used to all this exposure . . . let the sun shine in!!! 🙂

One supervisor was concerned that I said there wasn’t $500,000 in the budget for the RTA. So, I tried to figure out where they think it is. The County Budget really is vague, so I wanted to know where they thought they saw it. Turns out, its on page 798 of the budget and it is labeled something like “Commuter Train Contingency” and it is carry over money from last year or maybe even years previous to that. I tried to look at the budget, but as far as I can tell it’s not on-line. It’s not here, or here. And here the budget doesn’t go up to page 798, it only goes up to 307. So, more than half the budget information is not readily accessible to the public, but I’ll try to hunt it down, as I am truly curious.

Upon talking to a supervisor supporting the RTA, they said that isn’t what the money is for and it is likely hold over money from Transport 2020 and they’d be willing to take it out of the budget if it will stop the suspicion that it is for the RTA.

I assumed this money can’t be for the RTA because it is in the Capital Budget and it would be money for staffing which belongs in the Operating Budget. The supervisor who brought page 798 to my attention says they do that at the county level. Seriously?

PUT US ON TV, WE’RE MORE IMPORTANT
Every month, you pay 63 cents in your cable bill for Public Access, Education and Government television. The city gets about $410,000 of which 2/3 goes to Government television to cover the politician’s meetings and the Mayor’s show he does. 1/3 ($140,000) goes to the public to fund WYOU. Then, the city adds another $190,000 for their government channel. This year, to show a little tough love to WYOU and make them try harder to find other ways to fund the station, they are taking another $70,000 away from the public and using it keep their faces plastered their faces on TV. I find it interesting no one asked, what is the city doing to raise money to keep City Channel on TV? Apparently, public access can just use the internet, but government has to be on television. Maybe they should just use the internet as well . . . oh, wait, they can’t seem to quite figure it out. This looks bad. It looks like a bunch of self serving politicians with double standards. I think both stations are important, but I’m about to ask for my $.63 back. I wonder who gets more viewers beyond the city staff and politicians too lazy to go to the meetings or vacationing in Las Vegas, government channel with long boring meetings, or a station with over 65% local coverage and a wide variety of programming and producers? Ok, done ranting. I just think we’re being ripped off.

IN RELATED NEWS – DOES THE WSJ EDITORIAL BOARD READ THEIR OWN PAPER?
First, news with facts:
Price promises of backers of cable bill fall flat Here’s a little exerpt:

Nearly two years after an intense lobbying effort helped push the controversial video competition bill through the Legislature, those lower cable prices haven’t materialized. A recent study found prices for expanded basic cable increased nearly 28 percent from late 2006 to early 2009. Madison-area provider Charter Communications has said it will raise rates on its lower-tier cable-only customers by $3 in December.

Meanwhile, and editorial on the success!
Cable Competition Paying Off
They must have meant for the cable companies. But at least they are honest when they say that they don’t really care about the facts:

A Minnesota study suggesting cable television prices increased by 27.6 percent from December 2006 to February of this year in Wisconsin is hardly relevant.

BUY A HOME FOR $1
Sounds like a deal! You don’t need heat or running water, do you?

THE NEW EDGEWATER
Huh? This is just a story with the old picture, spouting the developers talking points, no balancing point of view and no details. Um, its the internet, you can put up a link and make the information available to the public to see. I don’t care if the rooms and parking are reduced what about the rest of it? It means nothing without some concept drawings. Again, the public has no info, but decisions at the city have already been made about TIF and the Wisconsin State Journal has information. When’s the next public meeting when they will unveil what they have come up with? They could have at least put that little detail in the article. Is it the November 5th time and location to be determined meeting? (Uh, that’s about a week away.)

400? 300? INQUIRING MINDS WANT TO KNOW?
When did the promised 400 monthly low-income bus passes get reduced to 300? And why did Metro’s original budget reduce it even further? Wasn’t that part of the promise when we raised the bus fares?

THOSE FALL LEAVES
I was sitting on my porch this weekend and noting, once again, that is really sucks that our streets don’t get swept in my area until May, especially with all the leaves . . .

 

 

You see, the streets department doesn’t think the “students” who live here can be bothered to move their cars.  Instead, the landlords don’t rake the leaves, they go in the gutters or rot in the streets and up a nasty goo in the spring that washes into the gutters long before they sweep the streets after school is out.  I didn’t get to finish explaining that to my friends before they quickly reminded me that it was no longer my problem and I should complain to my alderwoman . . . i.e.  not them.  But it is all of our problem . . .

That’s why I was glad to see these on some some neighborhood listserves:
Neighbors, when raking leaves, please consider taking a few extra minutes to rake leaves out of the street and onto the terrace, to help keep leaves and algae-producing nutrients out of the lakes. Every bit helps!

You can read more about the issue and get much more information here .

and

It’s that time of year again when we turn our attention to keeping leaves and other yard waste out of the streets. Since 2003, watershed groups, friends groups and the Madison Area Municipal Storm Water Partnership have been working to raise awareness of how leaves in the street contribute to algae blooms by posting yard signs and sharing brochures. The annual campaign has a new look this year, which can be seen at www.myfairlakes.com. Contact your municipality to get your yard sign and brochures or info@myfairlakes.com.

Unfortunately, in my neighborhood, I don’t think the landlords are listening. And I should get out there and rake those leaves off the street in front of my house!