WI under Walker - - no train, no budget - - but highway red ink of his own making

Wisconsin's major highways are congested, in disrepair, with no Amtrak alternative for relief or a 2017-'19 transportation budget resolution in sight - - so let's not forget who helped set this in motion years ago:

When Walker was Milwaukee County Executive in 2003 - - and with his first (and unsuccessful) run for Governor not too far in the future but with messages being sent to the road-builder lobby - - Walker made the key motion to add 19 more miles of costly new lanes in Milwaukee County that neither the Milwaukee Common Council or Milwaukee County Board supported.

Which ran the total projected cost - - much of which is at the heart of today's dilemmas - - up to $6.23 billion.

Details about all that, here.

How many of you recall that as Walker set the current transportation mess into motion, his only worry was that what spending $6.23 billion down the road might be insufficient!

“I believe that you have to have … a transportation plan that meets our needs,” said Walker, adding that SEWRPC’s $6.2 billion plan may not be foresighted enough. 

Meaning he wanted bigger or more grandiose, though offered no funding plan.

So here we are years later, forced because project cancellation is out of the question to borrow our way out to tax people again to keep the road-builder/government complex on the steroids that got us where we are now.

Oh, and to cut road-building blue collar wages. That'll help (not!)