Illinois: We'll take Wisconsin's $810M in stimulus money

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.suntimes.com/news/transportation/2878850,illinois-wants-wisconsin-rejected-stimulus-110910.article

9, 2010

BY MARY WISNIEWSKI Transportation Reporter/[e-mail]

Illinois wants the $810 million in federal high-speed rail money that Wisconsin Governor-elect Scott Walker has promised to reject.

“We’d love to have it,” said Illinois Transportation Secretary Gary Hannig. He said Illinois, which has already received $1.2 billion in high-speed rail funding, could spend Wisconsin’s money making further improvements to the Chicago-St. Louis corridor to add more passenger runs. snip

“If the new governor of Wisconsin is overwhelmed by $800 million of federal funds, we’d be happy to take that burden off his back,” Schoenberg said.

[LynneSin]

1. We'll take it here in Delaware too.

Everyday we pass by an area that was in dire need of repair. There was some sort of uneveness that had this section flood badly anytime there was a ton of rain - due to poor drainage setup. This is on 13S just outside of Wilmington.

They are finally fixing it. Everyday I pass by I see about 30 people there working and the project will last a year. In the end it will fix a bad stretch of highway and even add in a sidewalk for those of us who walk that section (which yes I do and it sucks walking on the other side of the road because my street is on the bad side and crossing Rt13 is a nightmare.

[bluedave]

2. I'll even

volunteer to take it personally

[PeaceNikki]

3. U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood spoke out on this.

http://chicagobreakingbusiness.com/2010/11/lahood-tells-wisconsin-governor-elect-to-stop-opposing-rail-project.html

U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood told Wisconsin’s governor-elect, Scott Walker, that the federal government will take back the $810 million in stimulus funding granted to the state for a high-speed rail line between Milwaukee and Madison if Mr. Walker doesn’t soften his opposition to the project.

After congratulating Mr. Walker, a Republican who defeated Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett last week, Mr. LaHood noted in a letter sent Monday the “difference of opinion about the value of a Midwest high-speed rail network.”

“I respect the power of governors to make decisions for their states,” Mr. LaHood wrote to Mr. Walker. “There seems to be some confusion, however, about how these high-speed rail dollars can be spent. For this reason, I would like to set the record straight: None of the money provided to Wisconsin may be used for road or highway projects, or anything other than high-speed rail. Consequently, unless you change your position, we plan to engage in an orderly transition to wind down Wisconsin’s project so that we do not waste taxpayers’ money.”

[PeaceNikki]

4. Also, If Wisconsin backs out, the decision will endanger a larger planned rail network

that would connect Minneapolis, Madison, Milwaukee and Chicago.

I fucking hate Scott Walker and he's going to hurt my state for years to come.

[HereSince1628]

5. Walker doesn't want to go forward, the state will have to payback $100Million

and the train car builder will leave taking their jobs, which admittedly aren't huge, with them.

Several things strike me as particularly mind-boggling about this mess.

1) Tommy Thompson, the former R governor, desperately wanted to be W's transportation secretary so that he could push something like this project through. Then surprise! Thompson reversed a decades long position and became anti-rail to support the republican candidate for governor.

2) Milwaukee county is finding it difficult to add lanes to its highways because it's right of ways are so narrow. Walker was Milwaukee Co executive and knows this. Rail service would alleviate the need to keep trying to widen the highways.

3) Republican Mayor of Wauwatosa, Didier, is fighting to NOT have a rail stop in Wauwatosa, home to the state's largest medical complex/reseach park. Why wouldn't you want such an important destination for everyone in the state served by passenger rail? (The volume of traffic on this segment would have gone a long way to paying for the upkeep that so troubles the Gov elect).

4) The rail project was presented in a way that made it vulnerable to the claim that it would only serve a small portion of the state (those who live along the corridor and near the handful of stops planned). Doyle very quietly, signed contracts for the project just days before the election rather than at the end of campaign selling the projects virtues.

Adding to mess is Wisconsin's rural vs urban thing with it's partisan geopolitics...Milwaukee is democratic, as is Madison, making it too easy to paint the Milwaukee-Madison rail as an interurban project targeted at rewarding the democratic base. Folks up-state are generally suspicious that too much money is thrown at that political axis already.

So a project desired for decades and finally begun has become fuel for the signal fire of fiscal austerity.

[PeaceNikki]

6. You make great points.

It doesn't make me feel any better about the plight of our state, but they're great points.

[madinmaryland]

7. Hey! We'll take it here in Maryland, too!

[SidDithers]

8. K&R...nt

Sid

[rosesaylavee]

9. This is the equivalent of rejecting Eisenhower's Highway System

Industry and commerce will die on the vine without it.

Smart move Gov-elect Walker. You will certainly be remembered in the history books.

[Lochloosa]

10. Me. Me.....send it to FL....Jacksonville to Orlando to Tampa

Yeah baby.

Of course, our new Fascist Gov would reject it

[Scurrilous]

11. K & R

:thumbsup:

[PeaceNikki]

12. Gov elect Walker told US Transportation Sec Roy LaHood to halt ALL passenger rail lines

http://www.wispolitics.com/1006/101109_Walker_LaHood_letter.pdf



Suck it, Scott.