Gov. Jim Doyle: “This is a tragic moment for the State of Wisconsin. Our team worked hard to win a national competition to make us a leader in high speed passenger rail. We were positioned to be not only a center of the line, but to be a manufacturing center as well. Now we are moving from being the leader, to the back of the line.
“Eight hundred and ten million dollars that would have gone to create thousands of jobs in Wisconsin will now create jobs in other states. Bogus arguments that this money can be used for roads have been proven false. As Illinois, Iowa and Minnesota continue to work on the Midwest Regional Rail Initiative, the connection of Chicago to Minneapolis will avoid Wisconsin. Milwaukee, Madison, La Crosse, Eau Claire and other Wisconsin communities will lose the benefit of those connections. Together with many others I have worked hard to move Wisconsin into the future. I obviously am deeply saddened to see us take a major step backward.”
Congressman Jim Sensenbrenner: “It is to the Wisconsin taxpayers’ benefit that they will no longer be required to pick-up the additional tab for a high-speed train that the majority of residents will never ride. However, with our nation facing a nearly $14 trillion debt, it is an absolute mistake for the federal government to redistribute $808 million from Wisconsin to other states, instead of returning that money to the U.S. Treasury Department and using it to help pay down our deficit, as I’ve called for in legislation I introduced in Congress.
Congresswoman Gwen Moore: “A month before he’s even been sworn into to office, Governor-elect Walker has lost good jobs for Wisconsinites. He’s denied our state an opportunity to be part of a new, nationwide transportation system that would have brought economic benefits along with it.
“Instead of graciously accepting a return of our hard-earned tax dollars, Governor-elect Walker’s hard-lined position is sending them somewhere else to create jobs.
“I hope to be proven wrong, but I think this will build a fence around Wisconsin. We’ll be forced to watch economic development in Illinois and in Minnesota as both states continue a commitment to a rail a line that connects Chicago and the Twin Cities. And it’s a gift we’ll have handed them.”
Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett: “This is a terrible loss of family-supporting, good-paying jobs in Milwaukee and throughout the State of Wisconsin and a shameful slap in the face to all the workers who would have benefited from this significant investment in transportation and infrastructure. With so many construction workers out of work, this project could have been the perfect spark to help turn the economy around.
“Someday soon the Governor of California, New York or Illinois will christen their high speed rail line, and it will be called the ‘Badger line.’“