Monday, July 4, 2011

Rep. Husley Blasts Walker on Bridge Boondoggle

Representative Brett Husley issued this press release pointing out Scott Walker's hypocrisy and the lie behind Walker's claim that the state is broke:

Walker Signs Pork Barrel Bridge Boondoggle Act, SB 26--

Bill would pave the way for $633 million new bridge when 1,100 are in jeopardy


Madison, WI—State Representative Brett Hulsey today blasted Governor Scott Walker for signing
a pork barrel Bridge Boondoggle Act, Senate Bill 26, near the site of an existing land bridge that is a few miles away from the proposed site. The Bridge Boondoggle bill would lead to spending another $633 million bridge over the St. Croix Scenic Riverway between Minnesota and Wisconsin while ignoring more than 1,100 deficient Wisconsin bridges as well as our schools and the elderly.

“The Governor says we are broke so we should not build this new $633 million bridge when 3.5
million Wisconsin citizens have to cross 1,100 deficient bridges every day,” said Representative
Brett Hulsey (D-Madison), a member of the Assembly Transportation Committee and longtime
transportation expert.

“This bill will pave the way for constructing a $633 million bridge just seven miles north of an eight lane bridge while ignoring more reasonable bridge upgrades,” said Shahla Werner, Director,
Sierra Club – John Muir Chapter (Wisconsin). “This massive project unnecessarily jeopardizes the
federally protected St. Croix Scenic Riverway.”

A recent Transportation for America study, “The Fix We are in For,” shows there are 1,142
deficient Wisconsin bridges, 8.2% of the state’s bridges carrying almost 3.5 million people per day. Minnesota also has more than 1,100 deficient bridges also. See the report at:
http://t4america.org/docs/bridgereport/bridgereport-national.pdf.

”In addition, Governor Walker’s budget gives $2.8 billion to corporations over 10 years that could make our roads and bridges safer, improve our schools, and protect seniors and working families,” Hulsey added. “Walker chose pavement over people, bridges over babies.”

1 comment:

  1. Having worked extensively with the attorney who killed the last idiotic proposal to build a new (unnecessary) bridge across the St. Croix wild and scenic riverway, I will say that we are prepared to fight this stupid and wasteful project again.

    Thanks to Representative Hulsey (D-Fighting for Good) for pointing out this latest example of the sickness and lies that make up the Walker administration.

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