Walker's Recurring Train Wreck

Scott Walker has always been against rail systems, whether it be Mayor Tom Barrett's light rail idea or President Barack Obama's high speed rail.  To be honest, he's not against rail systems per se, since he loved Wisconsin and Southern, especially since it's CEO, William E. Gardner gave him illegal campaign donations and tried to take the fall for Walker early in the Walkergate investigation.  But Walker does generally oppose any rail because it doesn't increase the wealth for the road builders or the CEOs of the gas and oil companies.  And Walker needs those people happy and paying as Walker tries to run two campaigns at the same time.

During the 2010 gubernatorial campaign, Walker made his opposition to Obama's high speed rail a central part of his campaign.  Shortly after when the election, Walker apparently got his way and the high speed rail was killed, along with the $800 million and thousands of jobs that came with it.

But Walker wasn't done.  He stopped payment on the order for two new train sets from Talgo, a train building company based in Spain who came to Milwaukee with the help of then Governor Jim Doyle.  He also cancelled the maintenance shed which would be required to keep the trains running.  He cancelled these things even though tens of millions of taxpayer dollars had already been invested into them.

As a result of Walker's rash and foolish actions, the taxpayers and the workers of Wisconsin have been hurt time and time again.

Talgo has prepared to pack up and move to a more train-friendly state with a much more intelligent governor, like Illinois.  Their leaving would cost Milwaukee 35 established jobs, not to mention another couple hundred that they wanted to expand by.  And Talgo wasn't about to leave empty-handed.  They have filed a lawsuit against the state for the rest of their money, based on Walker's breach of contract.

It also turns out that the repairs to existing train maintenance facilities and lines that would have been covered by the federal high speed rail funds had to be paid out using our tax dollars.

While we have seen the state lose money hand over fist and bleeding jobs because of Walker's infinite lack of wisdom, other states that didn't have myopic governors have been benefiting from the high speed rail program.

Now we learn that the state is going to lose out on even more as the Hiawatha line looks to expand, requiring new train sets which are being built in Illinois:

To have 10 daily round-trips, the two states may need a third train to join the two Amtrak is currently running. The only way to avoid it would be to run the new routes before the earliest current morning departures and after the latest evening departures, said Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari. The earliest Milwaukee departure is 6:15 a.m., and the latest is 7:35 p.m., he said.

If a new train is needed, the states could either ask Amtrak if it has any extras in its fleet, or procure their own, Magliari said.

“They could come to us and say do you have the equipment to support another set, and we’ll see if we do,” he said.

There’s a chance Amtrak may have some spare trains in the coming years, Magliari said. Four states, including Illinois, are buying new train sets to replace some of Amtrak’s. Manufacturer Nippon Sharyo is building those 130 rail cars in Rochelle, Ill., for Illinois, Missouri, Michigan and California.

Meanwhile, two trains that Wisconsin paid for, at least partially, for the Hiawatha are in storage in Milwaukee. Talgo officials claimed the company is owed $10 million on the original $47 million contract with the state of Wisconsin.

Talgo still owns the train sets, and sued the state after elected officials refused to pay for a maintenance facility to service those trains. They cannot run without such a facility.

All told, Walker's folly has cost the state around $1.5 billion and tens of thousands of jobs. And that's just from one policy decision.  Imagine how much his other knuckle-headed decisions have cost us.

Walker's handling of the whole high speed rail is a good metaphor for his entire time as governor - just one endlessly recurring train wreck.

The Walker Agenda Is Still Working! Part CLV

Remember how Scott Walker killed high speed rail in Wisconsin?  He said it would cost too much and that no one wanted it.

Yeah, that's just another thing he got wrong.  Nearly a billion dollars and countless thousands of jobs lost because of his greed and ignorance.

The Republicans Faux Outrage About Mining Jobs

Leading up to the end of the legislative session, the right wing was in an absolute frenzy about the mining bill.  Their corporate sponsors would not allow a meaningful compromise on the bill, which was written by Gogebic Taconite, thus effectively killing any chance the bill might have had.

In an effort to mislead the public into putting pressure on legislators like Senators Dale Schultz and Tim Carpenter to succumb to the corporate will, the various right wing front groups were absolutely hysterical in their argument that this bill would create "thousands" of jobs, not only in the north where they wanted to rape the land, but supposedly here in Southeastern Wisconsin, where all the mining equipment would be made.

First of all, the mining bill was bad news.  It would have caused severe ecological harm with the exemptions it would have given the mining company.  Furthermore, it would be the taxpayers that would have to pay for the clean up of their trashing of the state, both with their money and with their health.

And in exchange for giving all that up, they claim that the mine itself would be able to eventually create about 700 jobs, but as will other mining sites, there was no guarantee that those jobs would be for Wisconsinites.  They also claimed that the mining bill would create thousands of jobs in Milwaukee and other parts of Southeastern Wisconsin.  But again, that is doubtful, since Caterpillar, the big mining supply company that the right wing loved to mention as their "proof," recently announced how they were creating lots of jobs - in South Carolina.

When compared to the tens of thousands of jobs they already cost the state, the Republicans were all hyped up for a relative few jobs, none of which were guaranteed to go to Wisconsinites, but would have stuck Wisconsinites with a big environmental mess and a big tax bill.

Yet Walker and the Republicans pretended to be outraged and pointed fingers at the Democrats for "killing" all of those "family supporting jobs."

Who are they trying to kid?

Only three words are needed to show their hypocrisy: High speed rail.

Even before Walker was sworn into office, he had his first Pyrrhic Victory when he killed the high speed rail project in Wisconsin, which would have brought in hundreds of millions of federal dollars and created thousands of jobs, many of which were underway of being created already and not a year or two down the line as was the case with mining bill.

Not only did it kill off the thousands of jobs that were forming, it also helped to start the downward spiral he has put the state's economy in.  Adding insult to injury, the bill for not having the project has been costing the state taxpayers more and more money, much more than it would have if he allowed the boon to happen.

To further prove their hypocrisy, in one of their last acts, the Republicans chose not to honor a contract and killed the funding for a train maintenance site in Milwaukee.  Not only does this endanger 80 existing jobs, it opens up the state to a potential lawsuit which could prove to be rather costly.

In a double does of irony, the Republicans claim that they voted against the site because it was too expensive. While they claim that it's too expensive to honor this contract,  they ignore that the potential lawsuit could be just as, if not more, expensive.  They also elide over the fact that the cost would have been covered if they allowed the high speed rail to happen.

It's pretty damn obvious that the Republicans never did and still don't give a damn about creating jobs or saving the taxpayers money.  They are only interested in saving their own jobs and collecting more special interest money.  And then they wonder why they get recalled and voted out of office.

The Walker Budget Is Already Working! Part LIII

Scott Walker says the state is flat broke and doesn't have the money to pay it's employees.

Walker said that his budget, which took hundreds of millions of dollars out of the economy and concentrated in the hands of a few wealthy campaign donors, would miraculously create jobs, lots of them.

The reality is because of his stagnating the economy, our job market is much, much worse than the rest of the nations and the state's economic activity is dead last in the entire nation.

But the real kicker is that if it wasn't for Walker's failure, we'd have had a massive inflow of money which would have made things a great deal better here:

The Wisconsin Budget Project today released a report showing that since Republicans have taken control of state government, Wisconsin has lost out on $1.3 billion in federal funds.

"It's troubling to see how much federal money was left on the table at a time when Wisconsin needs every dollar it can get," says Jon Peacock, research director for the Wisconsin Council on Children and Families, which initiated the budget project. "State officials maintain that they didn't have the necessary funds to draw down the federal money, but that doesn't make much sense when you consider that the Legislature found some $200 million in tax breaks to hand out to corporations."

The biggest chunk of federal money turned down by the state was the more than $800 million grant for a high-speed rail system connecting Milwaukee, Madison, Chicago and the Twin Cities, which Gov. Scott Walker turned down even before he took office.

There is no defending this kind of malfeasance. Walker and his ilk have to go before he bankrupts us all.

JUST SAY NO -- Walker Edition

Walker has turned down $1.3 billion in federal funding. Yeah, we're broke 

You can slice and dice this all you want and split hairs until the cows come home, especially you ideologues who seem to feel that wins an argument.

But the real question is, can we afford this guy?

We could have done something with that money and please, don't dish the crap that we shouldn't be accepting the money in the first place.

Trust me, all of Walker's heroes -- Perry, Barbour, Christie, etc are taking the money. Texas would be dead without federal money. Walker was just unfortunate enough to buy into his own ideology.

Just think how much further ahead Walker would have been on his 250,000 jobs program. But unless it runs on rubber, his buddies on right wing talk radio have been rabidly against it, so this is the corner Walker has been painted into.

Wisconsin In Bottom Half For Business Climate

Site Selection, a leading magazine for corporate real estate and economic development, like most of us, doesn't think too much about what Scott Walker and his Republican cohorts have been doing to our state. They don't even think Fitzwalkerstan ranks in the top half of the states when it comes to doing business:

Apparently, the editors at Site Selection magazine have not heard that Wisconsin is open for business.

The leading corporate real estate and economic development publication has again left Wisconsin off its list of Top 25 States for Business Climate.

Site Selection released its 2011 rankings this week, with Texas slotting in at No. 1 after being runner-up to North Carolina for the past nine years. North Carolina fell to No. 3 behind Georgia.

B-b-b-but Scott Walker said Wisconsin was open for business! He even spent tax payer dollars to make signs saying as much! So what could be wrong?

So how can Wisconsin improve?

"Hanging an open sign is only the first step in encouraging new business," says Ken Harwood, editor of Wisconsin Development News and former mayor of Neenah. "We need to stock the shelves with products businesses want, like, great employees, good schools, continuing education, infrastructure improvements, and a stable tax environment."

Oh.

So maybe slashing school funding, cutting funding for technical colleges, attacking and attempting to demoralize the work force, rejecting high speed rail and crippling mass transit weren't good ideas after all.  Who'd have thought of that?  I mean besides almost everyone that hasn't drank of the Kool-Aid.

If you want to bring jobs back to the state and if you want to restart the state's economy, the only thing you can do is get rid of Walker and put into office someone who has the savvy to do the job the correct way.  Or at least someone who is in touch with reality.  That would be an improvement too.

Walker simply doesn't have a clue to what he is doing and needs to go, the sooner the better.

Fiscal Responsibility Railroaded Out Of Town

Remember how Scott Walker was crowing about killing high speed rail in Wisconsin?  He summarily rejected more than $800 million in federal funds which would have built a high speed rail system from Milwaukee to Madison as well as upgraded the line from Chicago to Milwaukee, which would eventually have become part of a greater rail system that spread from coast to coast.

It would have brought thousands of good paying jobs to the state and would have been a great boon to the state's economy.  Walker rejected it outright saying it would have cost tax payers too much money, even though it would have cost no extra money to build and less than $5 million a year to maintain.

But as I had pointed out, Walker's killing off the train was a Pyrrhic victory, to say the least.

Fast forward to this week and we see the Republicans just approved of spending $31.6 million of our tax dollars to fix up the Hiawatha line, and that doesn't even cover the whole bill!  And, just to emphasize the point, this would have been totally covered by the federal funds that Walker said was too expensive:

Wisconsin taxpayers could wind up paying more to keep existing passenger train service from Milwaukee to Chicago than they would have paid to run new high-speed rail service from Milwaukee to Madison, according to a Journal Sentinel analysis of state figures.

The Legislature's budget committee voted 12-2 Tuesday to spend $31.6 million in mostly borrowed state money on Amtrak's Milwaukee-to-Chicago Hiawatha line, costs that could have been paid largely by an $810 million federal grant that would have extended the Hiawatha to Madison.

But Tuesday's vote doesn't cover all the spending that will be needed to keep running the Hiawatha, a growing service that carried nearly 800,000 passengers last year.

State transportation officials have estimated they would need millions more for locomotives, signals and a new maintenance base, even without expanding service beyond the current seven daily round trips.

And, like the spending approved Tuesday, all or most of those new costs would have been covered by the federal grant spurned by Gov. Scott Walker last year. That's because the Milwaukee-to-Madison service would have operated as an extension of the Hiawatha, as part of a larger plan to connect Chicago to the Twin Cities and other Midwestern destinations with fast, frequent trains.

Taken together, state taxpayers' share of the Hiawatha capital costs that would have been covered by the federal grant could total as much as $99 million, significantly more than the $30 million they would have paid for 20 years of operating costs on the Milwaukee-to-Madison segment, as estimated by former Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle's administration.

The long year of Walker's reign just keeps getting longer and longer and longer. And much more expensive.

Turnaround's Fair Play

Scott Walker thought he was being clever when he tried to make a statement welcoming the companies fleeing Illinois because the state had just raised their taxes.

So far, the only company that I've heard of even thinking about leaving Illinois is Jimmy John's and they would be looking towards moving to Florida (where, by the way, they got some of our money and jobs with their high speed rail).

As it turns out, Illinois leaders weren't hesitant to turn the tables (or should I say, the windmills?) on Walker:

Today the Illinois Wind Energy Association (IWEA) invited wind power developers working in Wisconsin to focus their efforts on Illinois, where Governor Pat Quinn and the Illinois General Assembly have worked to streamline regulations for the wind energy business.

Wind developers have been apprehensive about investing in Wisconsin since Governor Scott Walker proposed legislation that would effectively ban wind development from the Badger State. With these new job-destroying regulations on the table, IWEA is happy to highlight the much more business-friendly climate just to the south.

In fact, it looks like Walker's anti-business agenda could turn into a real windfall for Illinois.  Not only would they gain the wind power related companies to their state, but then they can turn around and sell the electricity they produce to Wisconsin utilities that still have to meet guidelines on having so much of their power come from renewable sources, and their not afraid to point that out:

Developers in Illinois placed 498 MW of wind generating capacity in service in 2010, and almost 400 MW more should come on line in the next three to six months, In contrast, Wisconsin added only 20 MW of wind generation last year.  

“Illinois’ favorable regulatory climate for wind power will create over three-billion dollars in economic activity in the coming decades,” Borgia said.

According to a recent study by Illinois State University, the first 1,848 megawatts of wind capacity in Illinois:

• Support local economies by generating $18 million in annual property taxes

• Generate $8.3 million annually in extra income for Illinois landowners who lease their land to wind farm developers

• Created approximately 9,968 full-time equivalent jobs during construction periods with a total payroll of over $509 million

• Support approximately 494 permanent jobs in rural Illinois areas with a total annual payroll of over $25 million

The proposed wind ban is also helpful to Illinois wind farms because electric utilities in Wisconsin are more likely to meet their renewable energy needs using Illinois resources if wind energy is prohibited in the state.

IWEA urges Wisconsin utilities to reach out to Illinois wind projects to achieve their renewable energy goals, Borgia said.

At the rate Walker's going, he won't need to create 250,000 jobs because there won't be that many people left in the state.

Wisconsin Business Climate Not So Hellacious After All

For years, Scott Walker and his Republican friends and talk radio (but I repeat myself) have been telling the people just how horrible and hellacious the business climate is in Wisconsin, what with taxes and regulations and what not.

Only thing, it's not true.

The CapTimes did an interview with Madison-based restaurateur Chris Berge about that very topic. Berge, who has real life experience in the private sector, which most Republican politicians and talk radio hosts are lacking, points out that Walker and company are full of it:

CT: What about Walker’s claim that Wisconsin isn’t business-friendly?

CB: I don’t see it. My businesses and much of the business in Madison are based on good-paying, highly professional jobs. He’s coming from Milwaukee County, and the type of business people he is surrounding himself with are looking to find all the lowest common denominators. They want to keep the minimum wage low, keep benefits low and keep regulation off of businesses. It’s a race to the bottom.

CT: Have you had problems operating because of government regulations?

CB: Give me a break. I operate in one of the most regulated industries out there. My industry and the hospitality industry thrive when we have a healthy environment for people to live in and when we have a healthy middle class. Then people eat out. A healthy middle class is way more helpful to me than a tax cut.

CT: You haven’t found the business climate difficult?

CB: No. Because I actually cater to people that read and who are looking for an interesting, unique place to go out in Madison. That may sound condescending to the rest of the non-reading public that may get all of its information from Fox News, but it’s true.

The interview also covers how Berge was forced to scrap plans for a new restaurant that was going to be aimed at the traffic coming from the high speed rail station in Madison. As we already know, Walker killed HSR, sending all that money and jobs to California and Florida. This restaurant that will never be opened is just one small example of the jobs lost and the economic improvement that Walker's ideology has prevented from coming to be.

All of this raises the same two questions:

• Why is Walker lying to us?
• Why are we letting him?

H/T James Rowen

The Highway of Hypocrisy

Even before he was sworn into office, Scott Walker swore to kill high speed rail in Wisconsin. And kill it he did. Walker told the voters that he was opposed to HSR for a number of reasons. It was too expensive. No one would ride it. Even though the great bulk of it, including maintenance costs, would be paid with federal funds, it was still tax payers money and it should be used for something else, like paying down the deficit.

People from all over the state, even from around the Midwest, protested Walker's

myopia and pointed out how he was only giving all this money, and the corresponding jobs, to other states who knew a good deal when they saw it, Walker was determined in his headlong rush to bring this great state down.

Now, not even in office for three weeks, Walker is singing a vastly different tune regarding his "fiscal responsibility" to the tax payers.

The Janesville Gazette is reporting that Walker has iterated his position of being in favor of the expansion of I-90/39, calling it a "priority:"

As a candidate for Wisconsin governor, Scott Walker supported the expansion of Interstate 90/39.

As governor, he still does.

"Absolutely it’s a priority, not only for Rock County but for the rest of the state,” Walker said Tuesday after a meeting with the leadership of Rock County 5.0, a five-year public/private economic development initiative designed to reposition and revitalize the county’s economy.

In October, the state Transportation Projects Commission approved four statewide projects, including the $1 billion plan to expand a 45-mile stretch of Interstate from four lanes to six between the state line and the Beltline in Madison.

Well, well, the problems with Walker's arguments are already popping up all over the place.

Walker called HSR as being too expensive at $810 million. But he doesn't blink an eye at spending over a billion dollars on a freeway. But even the $190,000+ difference is only the tip of this iceberg.

The HSR which was to be built before Walker decided he was against economic development would have included not just the Milwaukee to Madison route, a distance of over 70 miles, but also upgrades to the current Hiawatha track from Milwaukee to Chicago. The $810 million would have also gone to fixing up train stations, repair sheds and other related projects.

The billion dollars for the freeway would pay for just the 45 miles of freeway, and doesn't include any overruns. Nor does that bill include the plowing and road repairs that would come with it.

The HSR between Milwaukee and Madison was to be just a part of a nationwide system and would have made both cities hubs in the economic boom that will come with it. The highway that Walker is supporting would go from Janesville to Madison. That's not a route that would be called a big economic boon.

Walker complained about the cost that the feds weren't going to pay for the train, even though that was only the cost of operation, and the feds were still going to pick up 90% of that tab, bringing the entire cost for all the money, all those jobs and that economic turn around coming from the train to about $750,000. In comparison, the feds would only pick up 40-50% of the cost of building the freeway, and none of the follow up costs.

The story is the same if you look at usage as well. The projected ridership of the HSR was set at 476,400 people for just the first year alone. The number of cars using that stretch of highway is 45,000. Unless you figure that these cars are clown cars with at least ten people inside each one, the freeway is again a much higher expense to the tax payers.

So, HSR would have been much less expensive for state tax payers per mile and per user than this relatively short stretch of freeway expansion would be. But if that is the case, why would Walker, who likes to promote himself as being a fiscal conservative, make such a foolish decision like killing the rail system but backing the more expensive freeway?

The answer is simple.

In Walker's mind, he is not beholden to the voters or the tax payers of the state. His true loyalty is to those that helped buy his way into the governor's seat: the road builders.

There is one more red flag of which the people should be aware.

In the Gazette article, Walker is already claiming poverty, blaming the previous administration for his woes. (Note to Walker: Since you were so ready to blame President Obama from day one for the nation's problems, then the state problems are yours now.)

This means one of three things. It could mean Walker has no intention of following through with his pledged support for the freeway, and was just saying what he thinks the people want to hear. Or it could mean that he is setting up the basis for proposing Wisconsin's first toll road to help pay for this boondoggle. Or it could mean that Walker is getting ready to really stick it to the tax payers.

Perhaps they should put up signs up and down that stretch of freeway labeling that stretch of concrete as "Scott Walker's Highway of Hypocrisy."

State Wars

With many states being under new management, or in Wisconsin's case, new manglement, there is a shuffling of stances and various states playing different hands while trying to take on their own state's fiscal mess.

In Illinois, their solution was to raise taxes. Goobernator Scott Walker jumped on the news and started touting how Illinois businesses should immediately relocate to Wisconsin. He was hammering away on how taxes in Illinois went up by 66%. All the conservative blogs were crowing about this as was the radio squawkers.

One thing that kept going through my mind whenever I heard someone else chirp in about how businesses were going to just come flocking over the border is wondering why they only mentioned the 66% statistic. Knowing how Walker likes to worm his way around the facts, I smelled a rat. Well, a weasel, actually.

Ironically, it was Walker himself who gave me the answer I was looking for. In a rare act of journalism, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel actually reported this:

Speaking to reporters in Madison, Walker acknowledged tax rates will remain lower in Illinois than in Wisconsin even after the increase is approved. But he promised he would lower Wisconsin's income and corporate tax rates before his term ends in 2015, though he stopped short of saying he would seek to set them below the rates in Illinois.

"If you're a company, you make an assessment not just on where things are today but where they're headed," Walker said.

Comparing taxes between different states can be tricky, but Wisconsin's corporate tax rate is 7.9% and its income tax rates vary from 4.6% to 7.75%, depending on the taxpayer's income. The legislation waiting to be signed by Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn, a Democrat, would raise the state's corporate tax rate to 7% from 4.8% and raise the state's income tax to 5% from 3%.

He never did get around to explaining exactly why a business would come flocking to a state with higher taxes. Ah, but don't worry. Walker said he would lower Wisconsin's taxes...someday.

But since he mentioned about how companies look to where things are headed, he gave Wisconsin another dolorous blow. USA Today looked at the same question, but it does not come up in our favor:

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, a Republican, invited Illinois businesses to relocate to his state, but J. Fred Giertz, a University of Illinois economics professor, says an immediate exodus isn't likely.

Companies, he says, weigh workforce availability, transportation and other factors when deciding where to build or expand. "Our state is close to insolvency, and they don't like that either," he says.

"An immediate job killer? Not likely," says Ed Morrison, economic policy adviser at Indiana's Purdue Center for Regional Development. "Much more important is regaining financial stability."

Well, in the couple months since the election, most of which was before he even was sworn into office, Walker has killed off HSR and before that has shown he is no friend of mass transit. With less transit options, it will be harder for workers to get to the jobs. If you don't believe me, just talk to Bucyrus CEO Tim Sullivan and other business leaders.

A business leader could also see that the maneuvers of Walker and the Republican legislature is doing little to cut taxes, even less than that to create jobs, but is escalating the whole budget deficit problem.

Altogether, it's not a pretty picture.

But it only getting worse.

Joining in the State Wars is Minnesota. They are trying to improve their fiscal situation by collecting on debts owed to them, like the nearly $60 million that Wisconsin owes them. And if Walker tries to stall payment until midyear, which he probably will, it goes up another million dollars in interest.

So, taxes staying the same (namely higher than most of our neighbors), deficit ballooning, failing transit system, and a government run amok with their antisocial agenda.

Yeah, I can just see the businesses coming in any second now. But you'll have to excuse me if I don't hold my breath waiting for them.

Walker Keeps Wisconsin In The Spotlight As A Running Gag

From Time.com:

WISCONSIN: Then again, maybe they won't. Chicago-Milwaukee has been a big success, Amtrak's fastest-growing line outside the Northeast Corridor. Milwaukee-Madison was expected to be equally popular and a crucial step toward a Chicago-Minneapolis line that could transform the region. But Walker ran against the new train as the local embodiment of Big Government, and he won easily. No, stakes hadn't been sunk, but the feds had committed $810 million; Moses always expected politicians to cash checks like that. Walker didn't, even though the costs to the state would have been minimal.

Big Government is always a convenient political opponent, especially when times are tough and families are cutting back, and the Administration was clearly overconfident that high-speed rail would inevitably expand once stakes were sunk. Still, it's one thing to complain about federal spending and quite another thing to divert it elsewhere. Shortly after Wisconsin's money was redistributed, the Spanish firm Talgo announced plans to shut down its U.S. train-manufacturing operations in Milwaukee and relocate the jobs to a state that continues to pursue high-speed rail. "I can't wait to see the ads in Wisconsin in 2014," an Obama aide says. "You'll have some guy working on the train in Florida: 'Thanks for my job, Governor Walker!' "

The man is an utter embarrassment.

New Year, Same Spin Machine

So, with it being a brand new year, the Scott Walker spin machine is still cranking out the same old ditties.

Today's spin appears to be that the Walker's refusal of the $810 high speed train funding only cost the state a total of 12 jobs. The usual suspects are already drinking up that Kool-Aid, thinking that this is actual and that it is a good thing.

But the numbers themselves are suspect, given what is written later in the same article (emphasis mine):

A bipartisan group of local communications professionals, led by public relations executives Jason Lusk and Christel Henke, had circulated the letter, telling the Republican governor-elect that signers are "gravely disappointed over the loss of $810 million that could have been invested in our state," along with the loss of jobs and track improvements for freight rail.

The letter also urged "greater thoughtfulness, civility, creativity and compromise in the future" than the rail debate displayed.

But Lusk said GOP rail supporters - even some who helped draft the letter - backed out of signing it.

Some called the letter "too strident" toward Walker, while "others told us they were concerned that criticizing Governor-elect Walker would harm their efforts to bid on state projects," Lusk said by e-mail.

"In the end, we were left with a few dozen signatures, many from Democratic supporters, none from outspoken Republicans."

So if Walker's pay-for-play method of operation has Republican businessmen too scared to even be publicly honest about the effects of this lost economic development opportunity, how can we believe them when they talk about the impact they've already felt?

The ironic part of all this is that it was the conservatives that kept worrying about the false idea of President Obama being tyrannical, when the people are they are supporting are offering undeniable proof of who the real tyrants are.

ADDENDUM: Walker's dishonesty is well known and has gotten him into trouble before.

Walker Really Saved Us A Bunch Of Money, Didn't He?

Yet another consequence from Scott Walker putting his ideology before reality:

The state and some Wisconsin counties are stuck with the $35 million tab to upgrade a freight line between Madison and Watertown now that federal high-speed train money is gone.

“The state had been waiting nearly a decade for federal money to come to Wisconsin to upgrade this freight line,” said Ken Lucht, manager of community development for Wisconsin & Southern Railroad Co., the state-contracted operator of the 33-mile track. “But because it is being redirected to other parts of the country, it’s pretty clear now the state is going to have to rebuild it themselves.

Even if you use Walker's bogus numbers in the cost to operate the rail, it would still take at least five years

Effects Of Train Wreck Walker's Decision Already Coming

So while Scott "Train Wreck" Walker and his supporters are still trying to justify his foolishness in killing high speed rail, we will soon be seeing the effects of his limiting the commuters' options already:

Travel times on the busy section of freeway will more than double during a repaving project scheduled to last about three months, from early April to the end of June.

Motorists commuting between the Marquette Interchange and Wisconsin Highway 16 can expect to add an hour per day to their drive time.

With gas already hovering around $3 per gallon and sure to go higher, this is going to hurt us more ways than one.

It's still two weeks before Walker is even sworn into office, and he is already well on his way to being labelled the worst governor in state history. What an idiot.

Scott Walker: Man Of Fiscal Genius

From "Mayor Dave" Cieslewski's blog, on Walker and his refusal of HSR funding:

Here's how it works. There are over $100 million in costs associated with the Milwaukee Train Shed, track improvements on the corridor and maintenance facility for the popular Hiawatha Line linking that city to Chicago. Because the new high speed rail line that Walker has now killed would have connected Chicago to the Twin Cities through Milwaukee and Madison, the feds were going to pick up that $100 million in improvements as part of the $810 million set aside for the Chicago to Milwaukee to Madison part of the project.

But now that Walker has turned back the federal money so that it can be spent on the same kind of project in other states, Wisconsin will have to pick up that $100 million through the very same state Transportation Fund that Walker said he was trying to protect.

It gets worse. At most, the annual operating costs for the Milwaukee to Madison portion of the line would have been around $7 million. That's the main reason Walker said he opposed the project. But now the state will have to shoulder more than 14 times as much to make those necessary improvements in Milwaukee. In other words, for what it's going to cost us to make those improvements we could have paid for the Milwaukee to Madison operating costs for fourteen years.

And here's the real kicker. Where is that $100 million going to come from? The very same state Transportation Fund that pays for roads. So, by turning down the high speed rail money Walker is actually hurting the road projects he said he wanted to protect.

Scott Walker - Man of Fiscal Genius!

H/T Caffeinated Politics

Walker's Pyrrhic Victory

Well, Scott Walker did keep one of his campaign promises, after a fashion. Then again, he clearly broke another one.

As everyone who isn't a hermit already knows, Walker's idiocy has caused the federal government to pull most of the $810 million that was supposed to go to high speed rail and will be giving it to other states you don't have turnip-headed weasels for Goobernator-elects. Walker, being as dishonest and hypocritical as ever, called it a victory for the tax payers.

In a word: Bullshit!

The feds have stated that they might let the state keep up to $2 million of the dollars, which is a pittance compared to what is needed:

Wisconsin also was allowed to retain up to $2 million to fund unspecified upgrades on Amtrak's existing Milwaukee-to-Chicago Hiawatha line. But that won't cover all of the $19.4 million cost of renovating the train shed at Milwaukee's downtown Amtrak-Greyhound station or the $52 million cost of building a new maintenance base for two newly purchased trains, two projects that would have been paid for out of the $810 million in federal funds.

Outgoing Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle had suggested Walker's stand also would jeopardize a separate $12 million grant for upgrades to a Hiawatha crossing and the Mitchell International Airport station platform, but the federal announcement made no mention of withdrawing that money.

Walker isn't even saving us any money, so I don't know how he can call it a victory. He didn't stop the train, he only managed to get the feds to reroute it. That means that Wisconsin tax payers still shelled out $140 million dollars for a train but have nothing to show for it.

Walker claims that that part that he was concerned about was the operating costs of the train. Again, that is complete nonsense:

Taxpayers' yearly support for the rail line was estimated at $4.7 million. According to the Census Bureau, in 2008, there were 2,236,518 households in Wisconsin. This equals roughly $2.10 per year, per household. As Bill Sell posted, 2 cents of every $10 of our transportation budget would go toward the rail line. Presently $9.20 of every $10 goes toward roads. Transportation expenditures breakdown thusly: 92% on roads; 4.4% on mass transit; 3.4% for railroads, harbors, and airports; and the proposed line would have gotten .2%.

$810 million in infrastructure, jobs, and development for $2.10 per year, per household, or for .2% of the transportation budget - sounds like quite a deal. Too expensive? Nonsense! This is a sad day for Wisconsin.

Wow, that $2.10 won't even buy a full gallon of gas. Thanks, Scooter!

The millions of dollars that Walker just squandered isn't the only cost to Wisconsin. It's also going to cost us jobs (and the tax revenue from said jobs) in the thousands, if not more. One such area of jobs is Talgo, which already announced that they would be pulling out of Wisconsin in 2012 and headed for a more business-friendly climate. But they aren't leaving without making it known what a true loss this is for our once great state:

"In our view, this is even more tragic for the state of Wisconsin than it is for Talgo," Friend said in a written statement. "This is the rejection of creation of direct and indirect jobs, of added tourism, of the increase in state income taxes with permanent employment and . . .  lost opportunities (from) the establishment and growth of the vendor supply chain, among many other benefits."

Cory Liebmann has compiled a list of some of the companies that just had their futures put on hold and their employees continued employment jeopardized by Walker's "job-creating" agenda. It should be noted that these are only the companies directly impacted by Walker's rejection of the train. It does not include the other companies and businesses, like the grocers, gas stations and other stores where the employees would have spent the money they now are no longer going to get.

And to round it off, the City of Milwaukee is looking at its options of suing the state in order to recoup the money spent on fixing up the Talgo plant. Walker should pay for it, but out of his campaign purse, since it was his political aspirations that caused this debacle in the first place.

But it's not all bad news. California is ecstatic, if somewhat bemused, with our Goobernator-elect's incompetence and idiocy:

Why would they do such a thing? Because it would cost taxpayer money to operate the rail lines after they're built.Scott Walker, Republican governor-elect of Wisconsin, fretted that his state's train would cost $7.5 million a year to operate. As train supporters pointed out to the New York Times, this is sort of like turning down a free car because you don't want to have to pay for gasoline and insurance. Not only did Walker and Ohio Gov.-elect John Kasich, also a Republican, ignore the construction jobs the projects would have created, but they ignored the positive impact on their states' economies, freeways and environment that the trains would have brought to future generations.

In summary, Walker not only didn't save us any money, but cost us a lot more than what would be needed in operating costs for generations to come. Not only did he squander this money, he killed existing and potential jobs and made damn sure that Wisconsin is left behind during the nation's economic resurgence. What Walker did manage to do is make the state into a laughing stock for the rest of the county.

It's not a good sign that we already can't afford Walker's foolishness and it's still three weeks before he even takes office. Now that is some high level incompetence.

If Walker has any more of these "victories," they will be resurrecting the billboards asking the last one out of the state to please turn off the lights.

I have a feeling that January 3, 2012 will be a momentous date in Wisconsin history.

Public Hearings On High Speed Rail Coming Up

The Wisconsin Department of Transportation (soon to become the Wisconsin Department of Road Builders) is holding four public hearings on the high speed Rail that Scott Walker wants to kill, along with the budget and several thousand jobs. All the meetings are from 5 pm to 7 pm:

Tuesday, Nov. 30 in La Crosse at the Best Western Riverfront Hotel, 1835 Rose St.

Wednesday, Dec. 1 in Eau Claire at the Best Western Trail Lodge Hotel, 3340 Mondovi Road

Thursday, Dec. 2 in Fond du Lac at UW-Fond du Lac (location to be determined)

Tuesday, Dec. 7 in Madison at the WisDOT Southwest Region Office, 2101 Wright Street

I Have Underestimated Scott Walker

He doesn't want to ruin just Wisconsin's economy and send our jobs elsewhere, he wants to take Minnesota down with us:

Train boosters in Wisconsin aren’t the only ones frustrated with Gov.-elect Scott Walker’s promise to kill the proposed rail link between Madison and Milwaukee: so are our neighbors to the west.

“Obviously, if we don’t have a willing partner, it makes it more difficult to move forward,” says Dan Krom, director of the Minnesota Department of Transportation’s passenger rail office. “We all have our state politics to deal with, and the fact Wisconsin is in the middle (between Minnesota and Illinois) is a problem.”

If Wisconsin refuses to get on board and Walker turns away $810 million in federal stimulus money to pay for rail service between Milwaukee and Madison, it is unlikely Minnesota would see its largest metropolitan area connected to the proposed nine-state Midwest rail line anytime soon.

I wonder if Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty regrets his support for Walker yet.

Talgo Turns Up The Heat

A few weeks ago, Cory Liebmann raised the question of where was MMAC on the whole high speed rail question. He rightfully considered their silence on HSR rather confusing since they've been strong advocates on how essential transit is for businesses to succeed.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is reporting that Talgo, whose future, as well as the future of the jobs they are bringing to Milwaukee, are hanging by a very tenuous thread, is asking much the same questions. Goobernator-elect Scott Walker is apparently choosing political rhetoric over keeping his campaign promise of bringing jobs to Wisconsin, which could very likely lead to Talgo reconsidering whether they stay in this state or go to one that is more prone to economic development.

Talgo is not just asking where is MMAC, but they are also calling out to M7. Both organizations were instrumental in bringing Talgo to the Milwaukee area. And they point out that it is not just them that will be hurt if Walker continues down this path of fiscal irresponsibility:

[Talgo vice president for public affairs and business development, Nora] Friend said a range of additional local vendors will be needed for such things as cleaning and catering, as well as producing electrical components and mechanical parts.

Earlier this month, the firm acknowledged it would consider moving the operation out of Wisconsin if Walker killed the high-speed train. Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn sent a letter to Talgo and invited the firm to move to his state.

"We are interested in going to whatever state has rail business," Friend said. "Illinois seems to be going forward with their rail plans. That's a possibility obviously. We have to stay open as a business entity. No one can expect us to stay where there is no business. It's a very difficult position."

I also have to say I find it rather ironic that Paul Ryan, whose district has been one of the hardest hit in this economic upheaval, apparently isn't that interested in improving his communities economy or having some these outside vendor jobs end up there.

It's becoming increasingly apparent that the Republican's idea of how to save the economy is to destroy it.