In This Issue:
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1. The Truth About
Transit
2. Phony Balony Jobs
3. Gas Tax Indexing
4. We're Number Four
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The Truth About Transit
For years, a small but vocal group of local officials and employers in Southeastern Wisconsin have been pushing for a new commuter rail system in the Kenosha-Racine -Milwaukee (KRM) corridor. The Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Transit Authority (SWRTA) was formed to study the feasibility of such a rail line, which would start in Kenosha where the Chicago Metra line ends and operate north to the Amtrak Depot in Milwaukee.
In January of 2007, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Institute for Survey and Policy Research released a report that purported to detail the costs and benefits of the proposed KRM commuter rail line. According to the UWM study, KRM would create 4,700 jobs during construction, with a $560 million impact on the area economy, and 126 jobs during project operations/ maintenance, with a $24 million annual impact on the economy. The study claimed that property values along the rail system would be increased by $2.1 billion as a result of increased transportation opportunities for residents.
Yesterday the Reason Foundation released a new report that throws cold water on most of the claims made by KRM backers.
- The $2.1 billion increase in property values the rail project alleges would mean that each of the 3,696 projected 2035 round-trip riders would be worth $568,000, a claim that “cannot be taken seriously.”
- Reason Foundation finds every new passenger boarding the commuter rail system would cost $28. Yet passengers would pay just $2.92 for a ticket, meaning taxpayers would subsidize over $25 for every new one-way rail passenger. By comparison, the total cost per passenger for the Milwaukee County Transit System (MCTS) in 2007 was $3.
The Reason report is also critical of SWRTA for failing to study other viable forms of public transit that could be much less expensive and more effective. As an example, the report suggests commuter express bus service, accompanied by park and ride lots along the interstate. Studies from New Jersey show that express interstate bus service costs 5.5 times less than commuter rail.
SWRTA also failed to study more realistic options such as bus service with traffic signal preference, an accommodation which increased bus ridership in the Los Angeles area by 40%. SWRTA also declined to investigate an expanded use of van pool programs. Both options are substantially less expensive and far more flexible than commuter rail.
Despite the potential benefits of various alternatives to commuter rail, a vocal group of leaders in Southeastern Wisconsin have convinced themselves and Governor Doyle that taxpayers should put out $250 million to build a system that will move only 4,800 people a day. Last week, Governor Doyle was in Washington, D.C. with his tin cup out, begging Congress and the President-elect for $198.4 million to help build the KRM commuter rail line. If the Obama Administration comes through, state and local taxpayers will be on the hook for another $50 million in capital costs, plus tens of millions every year thereafter to operate and maintain the system.
Spending a quarter of a billion dollars on a commuter rail system in order to spur economic development is a perfect example of “faith based planning.” Apparently the separation of church and state doesn’t apply to rail fanatics.
Resources
Reason Foundation Study
Reason Policy Summary
Frequently Asked Questions
WI Club for Growth --- The Truth about KRM
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Phony Balony Jobs
Governor Jim Doyle was in Washington D.C. last week, testifying in favor of an “infrastructure” package he hopes will bring $10 billion in federal funding to Wisconsin and bail the Governor out of the terrible budgeting decisions he has made over the last six years.
Mayors from across the U.S. have also descended upon the nation’s Capitol looking for a $70 billion handout for “infrastructure” needs. Robert Poole of the Reason Foundation has chronicled some of the 11,391 “vital” programs that will allegedly get our nation’s economy moving again:
- Hercules, Calif., wants $2.5 million in hard-earned taxpayer money for a "Waterfront Duck Pond Park," and another $200,000 for a dog park.
- Euless, Texas, wants $15 million for the Midway Park Family Life Center, which, you'll be glad to note, includes both a senior center and aquatic facility.
- Natchez, Miss., "needs" a new $9.5 million sports complex "which would allow our city to host major regional and national sports tournaments."
- Henderson, Nev., is asking for $20 million to help "develop a 60 acre multi-use sports field complex."
- Brigham City, Utah, wants $15 million for a sports park.
- Arlington, Texas, needs $4 million to expand its tennis center.
- Miami, Fla., needs $15 million for a "Moore Park Community Center, Tennis Center and Day Care" facility. The city is also desperate for $3.6 million to build a covered basketball court and a new tennis court at Robert King High Park. Then there's the $94 million Orange Bowl parking garage you are being asked to pay for.
- La Porte, Texas, wants $7.6 million for a "Life Style Center." And Oakland, Calif., needs $1 million for Fruitvale Latino Cultural and Performing Arts Center.
As any reasonable person can see, these “vital infrastructure improvements” have nothing to do with “keeping Americans working,” and everything with bringing home pork. The projects also allow mayors to expand the number of phony baloney under their purview, as described brilliantly by Nick Gillespie at Reason’s “Hit and Run” blog:
When the history of this awful moment of bailout hysteria is written, there'll be a chapter or 20 on the complete bogosity of what one might call "the infrastructure flim-flam"—the idea that government can bootstrap the economy out of its funk by hiring two guys to dig a hole and a couple more to fill it in.
Don't you see? It's the perfect plan!, as Batman's Riddler might exclaim. In fact, one only wonders why they don't hire three guys to fill the holes, thereby cutting unemployment to negative-something.
Then again, taxing Peter to pay Paul to build a parking deck with solar panels for Mary just might not be the sort of economic activity that, you know, accomplishes anything other than creating even more inefficient and generally non-productive public-sector spending with a major administrative dead-weight loss on the top.
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Bad Gas Policy
One of the reasons Wisconsin is so desperate for federal infrastructure cash to bail them out is because Jim Doyle has repeatedly raided the state’s transportation fund to prop up state spending on non-transportation related items.
But Democratic Senate Majority Russ Decker has found someone else to blame for his complicity in Doyle’s mismanagement of state finances: the taxpayers.
In 2006, the State Senate voted to repeal the automatic gas tax increase. According to Decker, the change, while saving taxpayers money, “cost” the transportation fund ---though not nearly as much as Doyle’s $1.1 billion in transportation fund raids.
Now Decker wants to bring back the automatic gas tax which would allow gas taxes to magically increase without state legislators ever having to vote to raise them.
"The people that led the charge to repeal gas tax indexing ought to fess up and say that was the wrong thing to do ... and put it back on,'' Decker told “Wisopinion: The Show.” According to Decker, the extra gas tax money could be used to help solve "huge problems'' in road repair and construction.
Someone should remind Senator Decker that “those people” include Democratic State Senator Bob Wirch, 14 Assembly Democrats and Governor Jim Doyle who signed the bill into law.
Decker’s alternative for those who aren’t willing to bring back the automatic gas tax is to pass Jim Doyle’s proposed “oil franchise fee,” which could increase the cost of gas by seven cents per gallon.
We're Number Four
According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, Wisconsin has the fourth largest budget deficit in the U.S.
In 2006, the main stream media and Governor Doyle’s campaign told us that Doyle had single handedly wiped out deficits left by the previous administration. That means every penny of the existing $5.4 billion deficit is the result of Doyle’s fiscal policies. Well done Governor.
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