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Old 07-19-2011, 02:21 PM
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Riot Riot is offline
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Join Date: Mar 2007
Posts: 14,153
Default Gov. Walker costs Wisconsin millions

Gov. Walker (R - Wisconsin) campaigns against federal funding, then refuses it once elected, costing his state millions.

Then behind the citizens' back he tries to get some of that necessary federal funding back and can't.

So then he has to borrow to replace some of it, and puts his state in debt for millions.

Well done, fool. The perfect example of "low-information" citizens voting against their own best interests, and thus costing themselves millions.

Long article with much detail, just some below:

http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepo...125810723.html

Quote:
Madison - The Legislature's budget committee voted 12-2 Tuesday to spend $31.6 million on the Milwaukee-to-Chicago passenger rail service, costs that could have largely been paid by a federal grant that would have extended passenger rail from Milwaukee to Madison.

Democrats backed the passenger rail measure. But they pointed to an estimate from the Legislature's nonpartisan budget office that found that at least $22.4 million of the additional costs stem from Republican Gov. Scott Walker's move to cancel an $810 million high-speed rail line connecting Madison to Milwaukee and Chicago.


Sen. Lena Taylor (D-Milwaukee) called the canceled contract an example of "Walker math" that is costly for the state.

"We had an opportunity to take advantage of federal funding in one of the tightest budgets in years," Taylor said.

[snip ... ]

That brings the total cost of the train car acquisition to roughly $70 million, about 47% more than the original $47.5 million price tag, according to the department's funding request.

But former Transportation Secretary Frank Busalacchi, who served under Doyle, has said most of the costs would have been covered by an $810 million federal stimulus grant awarded to Wisconsin last year to extend the Hiawatha to Madison, as part of a larger plan for high-speed trains connecting Chicago to the Twin Cities and other Midwestern destinations.

Walker, however, campaigned against the 110-mph route and after his election in November opposed it as governor-elect. The federal government then yanked the funds.

After the original grant was withdrawn, the Walker administration unsuccessfully sought $213.3 million in federal money earlier this year for Hiawatha upgrades, including additional trains, retrofitting the Talgo plant as a permanent maintenance base and improving the tracks between the plant and the downtown Amtrak station.

The costs of building and equipping both the temporary and permanent maintenance bases would have been covered by the $810 million federal grant. That grant also would have paid for more train cars and locomotives, which would have been serviced at a $52 million permanent base in Madison.
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