I don't think the public as a whole realizes the magnitude of the state employees' and teachers' salary and benefit packages. With the current state of economy, everyone else has made sacrifices. It is time for the state employees and teachers to be on equal footing with the rest of us.

On the choo choo:

It makes almost no sense between Madison an Milwaukee, but we need to look at the potential of such a line between Milwaukee and Minneapolis/St. Paul via the Dells.

I have a paper on this with more details.

Meanwhile, I can see a possilility of creating a 30 mile wide cordidor along such a route for Economic Development and possilby the creation of jobs by attracting industry to the area.

If somebody wants more, I might be able to put my paper in your hands...

Joe

With over 35 years of hands on procurement experience at every level I can't tolerate the waste that goes on in the public sector bureacracies. If there is any way I can help, let me know.
ken

Yeah, who would want to bring good jobs to Wisconsin during a recession? That's clearly absurd.

The train idea for moveing people is a long since past idea. How do you get around once there?. Trains for moveing very large freight from one place to another is the best way to do that, but people? don't think so, and the cost is way to big for what is going to do, and the up keep, wish I had just 1% of that.

I think this is a great ad and sure winning issue for Scott Walker! This train is an absolute boondoggle. I am not sure where Thomas is coming up with the 75,000 riders and if that is an annual rider estimate or the average annual number of drivers between Milwaukee and Madison on I-94. Personally, I think the focus on whether or not high speed rail is necessary in Wisconsin should be around facts not misleading cliques like "foriegn-oil" and artificial rider estimates. I wonder if most people know we import twice as much oil from Canada each month as Saudi Arabia. Or that we actually import more oil / year from Mexico than we do Saudi Arabia. In fact, on average, only about 9% of our foreign oil comes from Saudi Arabia and 60% of our oil come from non-OPEC nations(Canada, Mexico, and Russia). Let's just leave foreign oil out of this discussion, it is misleading an distracts from the issue at hand.

Our current rail service in Milwaukee, the Hiawatha Amtrak line, loses money year over year even with a massive government subsity from the Wisconsin, Illinois, and US DOTs. I would love to see Governor Doyle or Mayor Barrett's fact sheet and statistical analysis on how a commuter line between Madison and Milwaukee will a) be profitable for commerce in Wisconsin when every stop along the Amtrak line in Wisconsin is a dead zone (go check out Sturnavant, the Airport, or Intermodal station); b)will attract more riders than the commuter line to the 3rd largest urban center in the United States?

If a rail line between Milwaukee and Chicago is not profitable how will a high speed train to Madison ever be profitable for our citizens? Also, how will someone trying to run a restaurant in Manitowish Waters, WI (way up in Vilas County) ever see any value from a commuter train in south-eastern Wisconsin?

Final thought. This seem glazed over by the press but did anyone else notice that Mayor Barrett's office recently assessed the Intermodal station at about $1.5 million dollars? Boy that was a great $15 million dollar investment! Also, did anyone else pick up on the fact that Governor Doyle paid all the back due property taxes the Intermodal station owed to the City of Milwaukee to prevent Mayor Barrett's city government from foreclosing on the property. I am glad we have Mark Belling in this city to keep up up to date on this stuff!!

Way to go with this Scott, I know from watching you in Milwaukee for 8 years that we can count on you to watch our backs! You got my vote.

Is the cost of transporting 75,000 people between Milwaukee and Madison more expensive by rail or highway? Is the maintenance of a rail corridor more or less expensive than maintenance of a highway. Will a rail connection between Milwaukee and Madison reduce highway travel in that corridor? Which of these two methods of transporting people, say 75,000 people, use more foreign oil?

Since you have my e-mail address, I will await you answers to my queries.

PS--To give you an idea as to where I'm coming from, I voted for John McCain in 2008. Look up Oliver Wendell Homes.

I agree with Marsha. It seems as though some people do rely on having children and recieving state benefits as their source of income, although not all. I would like to see it a requirement that all individuals who are receiving any type of state assistance be accountable: 1) they must be a resident of wisconsin for a certain period of time 2) Benefits should only be available to legal US citizens and they must show proof SS#).3) Assistance is not based on the amount of children they have. 4) They will only be allowed to stay on assistance for a certain period of time. During that time they need to be going to school to improve their chances of getting a job.

You should use the Ozzy Ozborne song Crazy Train as your theme song to stop this "CRAZY TRAIN" from railroading Wisconsin tax payers into a long term financial strain just as the Obama taxes are set to rob us blind starting January 1, 2011. Someone needs to stop the CRAZY TRAIN in both Wisconsin and Washington.
Grab your brown bags and let's get to work Wisconsin!!!

Please take a few minutes to give us your thoughts on this subject.

Keep the common sense coming Scott! We need it!

Your TV commercial compels me to write this message. I know of a state DMV employee who worked his way up the ladder to the position of drivers license examiner, a position of significant responsibility and his salary level reflected this. He then applied for and was awarded a job as a office manager at an area DNR office. A position of much less responcibility, and a lower pay scale than the examiners job. Yet he continues to knock down the same wages as his previous job. Apparently, this is OK, as it's part of a employees' union agreement with the state. With Wisconsin operating in the red, how can we afford to over compensate our employees? How wide spread is this? Might it be a way to cut spending?