MADISON – Governor-elect Scott Walker says Wisconsin will not have to pay back 14-million dollars it spent on the Milwaukee-to-Madison high-speed train project before it was scrapped yesterday.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood pulled $1.2 billion in stimulus rail funds from Wisconsin and Ohio, because their new Republican governors didn’t want them. Thirteen other states will share the money for their high-speed trains. Walker said he now hopes Washington will focus on the “true needs” of Wisconsin and other states – and that’s quote, “fixing our crumbling roads and bridges.”
Walker said LaHood assured him the state won’t have to pay the federal government for what it spent on the new train. LaHood agreed to let Wisconsin keep two-million-dollars for upgrades on Amtrak’s current high-speed Hiawatha train from Milwaukee-to-Chicago. But the stimulus funding that was lost included $72-million for a new train shed and a maintenance base for the Hiawatha. Outgoing Governor Jim Doyle had said a separate $12-million-dollar grant for the Hiawatha line would also be in danger – but there was no word on that from Washington yesterday.
Scrapping the train was one of Walker’s biggest campaign promises – and Democrats were livid that the Republican Walker was able to keep it. Doyle called it a “tragic moment.” Milwaukee House Democrat Gwen Moore lamented the loss of jobs in building the train – and for businesses that might have opened near it. Outgoing House Democrat Dave Obey of Wausau said it’s the third time in state history that Wisconsin officials will have quote, “shot themselves in the financial foot.” Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett said workers in other states will “have a Merry Christmas while Wisconsin workers get nothing.” State Assembly Democrat Tamara Grigsby of Milwaukee called it “economic suicide.”
Train-maker Talgo – which moved to Milwaukee to build the trains for the new project – now says it will leave when it finishes other work in 2012. Company official Nora Friend says they’ll take 65 jobs with them.