Tax increases approved to pay for rail projects
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The Legislature's budget committee on Friday approved a plan to use a mixture of higher sales taxes and car rental fees to pay for high-speed rail and other transit projects in the two most populated parts of the state.
In Milwaukee, Racine and Kenosha counties up to $16 could be charged on car rentals to pay for a commuter rail line connecting the three southeastern Wisconsin cities. The KRM board created could also levy $50 million in bonds to help pay for the rail line, which has been discussed for years but always stalled over how it would be paid for.
Also, Milwaukee County would be allowed to impose a 1 percent sales tax to pay for a countywide regional transit authority. The $132 million raised each year would pay for transit, parks, cultural and emergency medical services. Fifteen percent would go to the city of Milwaukee.
In Dane County, which includes Madison, a half-cent sales tax could be imposed to pay for commuter rail and other transit projects.
The four Republicans on the committee voted against all of the proposals.
On a 9-7 vote, the committee voted against Gov. Jim Doyle's proposal to create a regional transit authority in the Fox Cities to help pay for the existing regional bus system using up to half a cent sales tax.
Democrats spent more than 12 hours meeting behind closed doors to work out the revised plan. The committee didn't start debating the issue until close to 1 a.m. Friday morning. The meeting was supposed to start at 11 a.m. Thursday.
The tax increases for the mass transit and rail plans, part of the two-year state budget, must pass the Legislature and be approved by Doyle before it becomes law.
Commuter rail supporters include environmentalists, business groups, organized labor and local governments, and organizations representing the disabled and elderly. They supported commuter rail to ease congestion, create jobs and spur economic development.
Republicans wanted to require a vote in any county that wanted to pursue rail projects, but that was rejected. They also questioned the merits of commuter rail.
"You want to keep the city of Milwaukee in the dark ages," said Rep. Pedro Colon, D-Milwaukee, to Republicans who criticized the rail proposals.
Doyle had proposed a half-cent sales tax to pay for the KRM line instead of the higher car rental fee. State Sen. John Lehman, D-Racine, was opposed to the sales tax.
The 33-mile line is estimated to cost more than $200 million. It would consist of 14 weekday trains in each direction between Kenosha and Milwaukee, with some trains going into Waukegan, Ill.
The line, discussed for years, has attracted the most controversy of the three. The Racine Common Council endorsed the plan, the Racine County Board supported the concept but not the sales tax, and the Sturtevant Village Board opposed it.
Milwaukee County supervisors had been pushing the plan adopted for that county that gave it the authority for the 1 percent sales tax. Republicans voted against it.
The Madison RTA has the support of County Executive Kathleen Falk, Madison Mayor Dave Cieslewicz and other local officials. Both Cieslewicz and Falk attended the meeting. They argue that the half-cent sales tax will offset property taxes that currently help pay for the bus system and county roads.
Dane County officials want to establish a commuter rail system between Middleton, which is west of Madison, to Sun Prairie on the east.
The half-cent sales tax for the area under the Dane County RTA would raise about $38.5 million or $172 per household, according to the Legislative Fiscal Bureau.
The Fox Cities RTA, which would be used for bus service, would include Calumet, Outagamie and Winnebago counties. The mayor of Appleton has publicly endorsed the concept, but other local officials and governing boards in the region haven't been outspoken.
That area would only have to apply a 0.25 percent sales tax increase to more than replace the current property tax money spent on bus transit. That amount of increase would raise $9.7 million, or an average of $79 per household, according to the Fiscal Bureau.
May 2, 2009 at 6:58 p.m.
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You mean like the blind black gov of New York. Oh ha ha!
May 2, 2009 at 1:45 p.m.
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Casey: Wanna know a secret? REAL women think bald is sexy!
May 2, 2009 at 9:32 a.m.
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It is just a traditional part of our culture to make fun of bald men, just as it is socially acceptable to make fun of people with excessive body fat, dark skin, developmental disabilities, and terminal illnesses. It is all in good fun and no one takes offense.
May 1, 2009 at 2:45 p.m.
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he might be more qualified with the full head of hair but remember he is going to go down cause he is crooked really crooked.
May 1, 2009 at 12:11 p.m.
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We could always recruit a recently unemployed Illinois Govenor, he certainly has a full head of hair, wouldn't that make him more qualified?
May 1, 2009 at 11:31 a.m.
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I have noticed that Doyle is bald and have been reading slams about him being bald. Is that terrible? I have been bald since my early twentys through no fault of my own. Does that make him a bad Governor? Are bald people less worthy? Would hair make us better people? I have heard him called on here "Old Baldy" Chrome Dome" and others. What effect does this have on his leadership abilities?
May 1, 2009 at 11:24 a.m.
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Why is it that rail is always supposed to pay its way? When was the last time GM paid for a highway? If you pretend that the giant 100% subsidy for roads doesn't exist, of course rail looks expensive.
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The benefit to the state and to Rock County (which is not yet part of any rail authority) will be economic development. We'll also be cushioned when the inevitable gas spike happens and the automobile becomes permanently obsolete.
May 1, 2009 at 10:44 a.m.
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so there I was just minding my own business pinching my pennies and tending my V garden and listening to the news on the radio when WHAM! I got hit by a tax train!
May 1, 2009 at 10:38 a.m.
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when ever I travel and rent a car it always ticks me off to see the local taxes put on my bill,$16.00 extra dollars would make me think twice if I needed to return. Politicians always want symbolism after there out of office and the DIAMOND JIM EXPRESS would be his.
May 1, 2009 at 10:24 a.m.
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If it's a money-making proposition (which it isn't), then private investors would have been all over it (they're not).
I used to commute from Whitewater to downtown Milwuakee. Even if there was a train from WW to Downtown, I probably wouldn't have taken it since I live out in the country and it would have been like a 6 block walk from the station. Who's going to walk 6 blocks in the winter or middle of summer in a suit?
Mass transit works in a high-density city like Chicago or New York. Not Milwaukee.
May 1, 2009 at 9:30 a.m.
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Rail has always been a huge pipe dream of the libs. They tout how "green" it is, but forget to mention a few things, such as even if stimulus dollars (future tax dallars) pay for it, it still needs to be funded for operational costs every year and that also comes out of the taxpayers' pockets. These things are black holes for money. Maybe they're a good idea in huge metro areas like NYC or Boston where auto travel is so choked off that riding rail is actually a more convenient option, but in WI, the vast majority of people will still drive themselves. After all, unless the rail pulls up to the front door of where you need to go, how exactly are you going to get from the train drop off point to work, etc? Walk? Take a cab? You think most folks are going to hoof it to and from the train station in Wisconsin winter?? I doubt it, but all that matters is that Doyle and the Dems "believe" it will work, so that's enough to condemn us taxpayers to a life sentence of more outrageous taxation.
Remember this come election time folks because even though some of you out there can't pay enough taxes, the rest of us are fed up and unfortunately we have to get shaken down just like everyone else because this crook keeps getting elected.
May 1, 2009 at 9:12 a.m.
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After the train is built the cost for operation and maintenance will fall on the Wisconsin taxpayers, because this is public transportation. This will always operate in the red.
May 1, 2009 at 8:37 a.m.
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because we live in this wonderful state that once was................ the land of construction , beer farts and cow poop.(construction jobs...factory jobs making the beer and farmers feeding us and the cows) Now all we have going for us are choo choos a bald governor and higher taxes. I like the first description better.
May 1, 2009 at 6:01 a.m.
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This is why our legislators will never be able to balance the budget. This project will be waste, fraud, and cost over runs."You want to keep the city of Milwaukee in the dark ages," said Rep. Pedro Colon, D-Milwaukee...YES! Let me ask you Pedro, how is this new tax that will never die benefit the people of Rock County?
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