Walker era bookended by hostility to Amtrak, favors for Foxconn
And what they had in common: obeisance to the road-builders and right-wing ideology.
As the Walker era ends with one final round of subsidy-ridden and putridly-partisan grotesqueries, let us not forget his first major wound to the state that now bookends eight long years of distorted and damaging one-party rule.
Walker began by throwing away the construction of a fully, federally-paid Amtrak extension from Milwaukee-to-Madison-to-modern regional connections - - plus more jobs wrapped in future train assembly and rail corridor development - - by inflating by a factor of twelve the size of the possible state operating contribution beyond the state's estimate of about $80,000 monthly.
So 'we can't afford that!' and not a dime to move people regionally and through the I-94 corridor by rail.
Walker's full anti-city, anti-rail history, here.
Yet Walker managed after backing a deficit-ballooning 15-year orgy of unsustainable highway expansion to shovel a fresh gob of taxpayer dollars to the tune of $490 million to 'improve' part of the I-94 corridor so the already-heavily subsidized Foxconn project he powered through the legislature and local governments - - and through their residents' homes and farms - - can move TV screens in driverless vehicles less than 20 miles from Mt. Pleasant to a shipping site at Mitchell International Airport.
So millions to move TVs, not people.
TV screens by the truckload that will get preferential service to avoid possible traffic congestion which is routine on roads pocked by Scottholes, and crowded by motorists without rail options that Walker has consistently blocked.
Congested even by workers who might have used rail to get to Foxconn jobs
Walker will not be missed.
A full Foxconn archive is here.
As the Walker era ends with one final round of subsidy-ridden and putridly-partisan grotesqueries, let us not forget his first major wound to the state that now bookends eight long years of distorted and damaging one-party rule.
Walker began by throwing away the construction of a fully, federally-paid Amtrak extension from Milwaukee-to-Madison-to-modern regional connections - - plus more jobs wrapped in future train assembly and rail corridor development - - by inflating by a factor of twelve the size of the possible state operating contribution beyond the state's estimate of about $80,000 monthly.
So 'we can't afford that!' and not a dime to move people regionally and through the I-94 corridor by rail.
Walker's full anti-city, anti-rail history, here.
Yet Walker managed after backing a deficit-ballooning 15-year orgy of unsustainable highway expansion to shovel a fresh gob of taxpayer dollars to the tune of $490 million to 'improve' part of the I-94 corridor so the already-heavily subsidized Foxconn project he powered through the legislature and local governments - - and through their residents' homes and farms - - can move TV screens in driverless vehicles less than 20 miles from Mt. Pleasant to a shipping site at Mitchell International Airport.
So millions to move TVs, not people.
TV screens by the truckload that will get preferential service to avoid possible traffic congestion which is routine on roads pocked by Scottholes, and crowded by motorists without rail options that Walker has consistently blocked.
Congested even by workers who might have used rail to get to Foxconn jobs
Walker will not be missed.
A full Foxconn archive is here.
1 comment:
With Romney's "corporations are people, too" comment in mind, Foxconn sure looks like an immigrant looking for welfare immediately upon arrival, (if not before.) Foxconn should be just the type of "person" some would call an "illegal alien." The push has been that these persons are not supposed to be permitted entry. Where are the military troops to keep Foxconn from setting foot on our soil?
Post a Comment