Walker, GOP have destroyed state roads and budgets
Remember when Wisconsin was set to be run like a business because that's how Scott Walker and Republicans roll?
Well, here we are in year seven of their one-party rule, and their own 'managers' at the Department of Transportation, along with non-partisan analysts, have prepared a memo which confirms what every motorist in our orange-barrel-and-pothole hell statewide already knows:
The roads are a mess, there's not enough money to repair and improve them, the budgets are awash in red ink and taxpayers face mounting congestion and billions in unfunded obligations:
Other shoes will drop, including cuts to social programs to divert funding for road projects and zero out the impact of new fees or taxes Walker allegedly opposes, plus fresh debt heaped on future generations to pay for Walker's failed ideological experiment that gave the road-builders what they wanted at the public's expense.
Imagine where we would we be today if Walker had taken the sound advice from 1000 Friends of Wisconsin and others and focused first on fixing what we already had instead of grabbing for new things we couldn't afford and, in several cases like State Highway 164 north of I-94, and State Highway 23, were halted or cut back by court order because they were not justified by need, law or data.
And he wants a third term? If this is running the state like a business, a normal board of directors would have already sent him packing.
Who beside tow truck operators, tire and front-end repair shops owners, plus the road-builders, would go for that?
Well, here we are in year seven of their one-party rule, and their own 'managers' at the Department of Transportation, along with non-partisan analysts, have prepared a memo which confirms what every motorist in our orange-barrel-and-pothole hell statewide already knows:
The roads are a mess, there's not enough money to repair and improve them, the budgets are awash in red ink and taxpayers face mounting congestion and billions in unfunded obligations:
Based on earlier budget projections, the memo determined taxpayers would spend $200 million over the next 10 years on temporary repairs because the state is putting off rebuilding highways in southeastern Wisconsin.
After that, taxpayers would have to spend $125 million each year to maintain deteriorating roadways in southeastern Wisconsin — for the next 30 years, according to the memo.- - while Walker gallivants around the country as head of the Republican Governors Association dining with Donald Trump, goofing off along the sidelines at the National Football Conference championship game and otherwise plotting his next national move should he leave behind the wreckage of the transportation bomb he dropped on the state - - and which he set in motion years ago as Milwaukee County Executive by promoting the Southeastern Wisconsin Freeway expansion and reconstruction plan that endorsed spending $6.4 billion in 2003 dollars without including a financing plan.
Other shoes will drop, including cuts to social programs to divert funding for road projects and zero out the impact of new fees or taxes Walker allegedly opposes, plus fresh debt heaped on future generations to pay for Walker's failed ideological experiment that gave the road-builders what they wanted at the public's expense.
Imagine where we would we be today if Walker had taken the sound advice from 1000 Friends of Wisconsin and others and focused first on fixing what we already had instead of grabbing for new things we couldn't afford and, in several cases like State Highway 164 north of I-94, and State Highway 23, were halted or cut back by court order because they were not justified by need, law or data.
And he wants a third term? If this is running the state like a business, a normal board of directors would have already sent him packing.
Who beside tow truck operators, tire and front-end repair shops owners, plus the road-builders, would go for that?
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