State, Waukesha County Highway Budgets Resemble Game Shows

Will the state transportation department continue to reserve more than $20 million for a Pabst Farm mall interchange so the project owners can woo a developer to an interchange-serviced site?

Is this how it works? Dangle the prize money and the developers come calling?

Will Waukesha County set aside $1.75 million for a mall developer, any developer, or for that matter, any big project planner, too?

Is public budgeting when highway spending is involved now an episode of "Oprah."

"You get an interchange! You get a TIF. You get a blank check? You get whatever you want," even if all the existing competing businesses established themselves in nearby towns and commercial districts without gobs of subsidies.