Wisconsin’s Future

The attached article frames a perfect picture of the difficulties Wisconsin faces in the upcoming election cycle.  http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-08-27/democrat-feingold-confronts-businessman-rival-amid-wisconsin-economic-woes.html  Here we have our three term joke of a Senator (Russ Feingold), basically towing the Democrat company line, sometimes being even MORE liberal than those that have crafted some of the bills, versus a business man trying to make things a little more frugal. 

The point that is raised in the article pertaining to the “brilliant” idea of connecting Milwaukee and Madison via “High-Speed” Rail is a perfect example of Liberalism run amok in this state.  Russ is, in poker terms, ALL IN.  Russ thinks that building what equates to 1950′s technology in the 21st century world “is in fact building a legitimate, environmentally sound, infrastructure for the future of our state.”  WOW!!!!  Hey Russ, 1) define legitimate!  Oh, and 2) how is building a train going to help the environment?  Same amount of people utilizing the roads will lower carbon emissions?  Infrastructure?!?!?  You mean that 800+ million dollars you want to spend on a train that NOBODY is going to use is better than spending money on real infrastructure, say like separated sewer lines in Milwaukee?!?!!  I know, I know, the Federal Government has “earmarked” that money for transit, so there’s NOOOOO way it could be spent on something else (sarcasm dripping).  Lastly, if we build this white elephant, the future you speak of will be bleak, at best, but thanks for playing. 

Feingold SPENDS….who else spends?  Liberals.  They spend and spend and spend until they can’t spend anymore, than cry “tax the rich” (whatever rich is defined as these days).  This rail line is going to cost taxpayers $800 or more million dollars to build, JUST to Madison.  There’s a proposal to extend this to Minneapolis, which will cost at least another 800+ million dollars, not to mention the 10′s if not 100′s of millions of dollars to staff, maintain, and repair this white elephant.  All of these costs will crush this state, which is already in severe budgetary straits, and push it further down the tax well we’re already in.  Why? So we can have a train to take a handful of people to Madison on the six Saturday mornings there are Badger football game??  I would go into detail as to the absolute joke of a project this is, but I will save that for a later post.  Sufficed to say, spending the federal money, the state money needed for repairs etc, and the subsequent need to RAISE taxes in this state is not only irresponsible, but it is downright reckless.  Wisconsinites, do you want a person like Russ Feingold spending money indiscriminately, or do you “take a chance” on a person that isn’t immersed in Beltline chicanery?  I know what I’M going to do…..

Wisconsin is a proud state and we should be, but this environment of socialism-lite we’ve employed over the last 80-100 years isn’t working.  The “need” to have unions is over, the days of regulating and taxing business unnecessarily has to end, and looking for government to solve our woes must be altered.  This state must look FORWARD, not because of candidate platitudes, but with pro-business attitudes.  We must look for ways to attract people to come here.  That includes job CREATION (see Mercury Marine as an example of the opposite of creation), lower taxes on businesses, (especially small to medium business so they can invest in more capital and in turn employ more people), and it also includes relieving regulations on business so they can concentrate on their core competencies not on the bureaucracies of government.  Wisconsin is in the top 10-20% of most taxed states in the union, one of the most regulated (especially if you take out CA and NY), and is soooooooo anti-business that the Governor of the state can’t attend the last labor meeting for a company proposing to leave, in essence saying “toodle-oo” to 400+ jobs to Louisiana (good job Diamond Jim). 

Russ Feingold is not a leader; he’s a detriment to progress, especially in our state.  If the “maverick” moniker is to be used on Russ Feingold it is because he truly doesn’t just vote for the most liberal interpretation of a bill; he’s a maverick because he votes against liberal bills because, in his keen eye, they’re NOT LIBERAL ENOUGH – that my friends should say it all……

Milwaukee and SE Wisconsin – Don’t Be A Transit Lemming

Transit, we all need it, we all use it (in varying ways) and in SE Wisconsin we all argue about it.  Over the last decade and a half the argument, for all intents and purposes, has been around what type of MASS transit are we going to build with the federal money we received exclusively for mass transit.  There have been multiple proposals from a multitude of people, organizations, and third party (“unbiased”) think tanks, but we are still sitting here after more than a decade with millions in the bank account.

Now, to start things off, I want to get my opinion out there so there is no ambiguity or that anyone gets the impression I have a secret agenda – I am NOT a proponent of light rail, additions to the train system, trolley cars, and the like.  I will admit that having mass transit (subways, light rail), can be convenient, but so can plexi-glass enclosed sidewalks (to avoid this horrendous cold and incessant snow), but when you stack up the costs of building, staffing, and maintaining these convenient little trains, the numbers don’t match up.  There is approximately 91 million dollars available to this area to build some sort of mass transit system, and the latest and greatest proposal being plopped on the table is the KRM (Kenosha to Racine to Milwaukee) rail line.  The advantages that are being thrown out there by the pro-transit crowd are: increased development along the rail line, it will be attached to the Chicago METRA line – furthering the line usage, and property values would go up 10%.  All of which is garbage.  There is no discernable proof that development along the lines would crop up, much less be successful (and before I get comments on Portland and other cities, please do your homework and find out the cost figures to build and sustain those lines and compare that to the increase in taxes from the so called development.  You will find there is a negative pay-back to the community as it relates to “development”).  The connection to the METRA line is a worthless argument.  Let’s take a hypothetical: I’m living in Milwaukee and I want to go to Chicago via the KMR/METRA line.  I catch the KMR line in downtown Milwaukee (I’ll say at the newly renovated Intermodal Station – still can’t stand that moniker, but oh well) and head down south.  According to the proposal I will stop at:

1. Milwaukee Southside
2. Cudahy/St. Francis
3. South Milwaukee
4. Oak Creek
5. Caledonia
6. Racine
7. Somers
8. Kenosha

NOW WE GET ON THE METRA LINE – assuming the extension goes through

1) Waukegan

2) Lake Forest

3) Highland Park

4) Braeside

5) Wilmette

6) Evanston

7) Chicago

 Whew, that’s a lot of stops for 90 mile ride.  I am sure if you’re a resident of Milwaukee, and want to commute to Chicago (or vice versa), this mode of transportation would be the best, most cost effective, timely form of transportation you could take.  What a farce.  By their own admission the 33 mile ride from Milwaukee to Kenosha (normally a 35-40 min ride would be 57 mins.  Take that ride AND the ride from Kenosha to Chicago and you have at least a 2 hour commute.  I lived in Chicago for awhile and temporarily commuted.  If you leave at the right time, your trip to downtown Chicago from Milwaukee is one and a half hours (that’s in the morning, arrival in Chicago: 7:15 am).   In this scenario your daily commute is an additional hour, 5 hours a week, 20 hours a month, etc, etc, etc. 

I could go on and on about how this plan is an absolute joke, but that is for a later post.  I wanted to finish on a recent article I read that adds just another layer of B.S. to this whole debate.  The following link is an article in the JSOnline reporting on the quotes and findings of one Tom Rubin from the libertarian think tank called The Reason Foundation.  http://www.jsonline.com/news/wisconsin/36210564.html  He says that many of the numbers the KRM support group has come up with regarding development along the rail line, rider-ship and property value increases are over-stated and that an express bus system is the better way to go.  This after a paid consulting gig from that same group caused him to all but wholeheartedly support the KRM plan.  Thanks Tom.  I’m so glad you can do such in-depth analysis on a transit issue and come up with a “solution” in June, and then come up with another “solution” trumping the one you just made 6 months ago.  This is the problem people.  Even the so called experts cannot come up with proper or agreeable conclusions to this issue, and I’m just supposed to pour 100′s of millions of taxpayer dollars into this because every other city is stupid enough to?  Yeah that’s right; I’m challenging the argument; “Well, Portland, St. Louis, Dallas, Minneapolis, and every other city is building light rail, why is Milwaukee so far behind?”  It’s the same answer I got when I was a kid and the same one I’ll give my kids and everyone reading this post: “If your group of friends jumped off a bridge, would you?”  Light rail and the experts (a loose term mind you) that consult, lobby, and support it are a joke.  Milwaukee, Racine, Kenosha, and all other SE Wisconsin residents, do not follow that lemming in front of you off the financial cliff, you’ll regret it.