Posted: Friday, October 19, 2007 12:00 am
Commuter rail not funded in new state budget
Journal Times staff
Sen. John Lehman, D-Racine, said Racine will receive some goodies in the 2007-2009 budget and mentioned money might be included for infant mortality reduction, Sixth Street and the Cops for Kids reading program.
But there's no train for Racine County in the 2007-2009 Wisconsin state budget. Kenosha-Racine-Milwaukee, or KRM as it came to be known, is not funded.
The initiative is dead, but not for a lack of effort, Lehman said.
"I am disappointed," Lehman said. "We worked on this thing for a long time."
Initial estimates stated KRM would operate 14 daily round trips in a 33-mile corridor with nine stops and carry an estimated 1.7 million passengers per year.
The rail service would used the existing Union Pacific Railroad track into the downtown Milwaukee area. Passengers would have connected with Chicago's Metra commuter rail by changing trains at Kenosha or Waukegan, Ill.
Lehman said KRM was in play in the budget process until the end. He learned of its demise from his party's leadership just hours before the announced budget. Lehman placed blamed Republicans and singled out Rep. Robin Vos, R-Caledonia.
"Part of the difference is we have Robin Vos from the Racine area and he's not supportive and they could not get him to agree to it," Lehman said.
Vos could not be reached Friday evening for comment. Lehman said Rep. Jim Kreuser, D-Kenosha, told him he fought for KRM and delayed negotiations for several hours in an attempt to secure the train's place in the budget.
The effort to secure commuter rail for southeast Wisconsin failed in spite of public support from the mayors of Racine and Kenosha and from many influential business people.
"The business community in (southeastern) Wisconsin strongly supports the proposed KRM commuter rail line and the three-county rental car fee which would fund the local share of capital and operating costs," several Racine area executives wrote in a September letter to Assembly Speaker Michael Huebsch, R-La Crosse, in an effort to stir support for commuter rail.
Lehman said Republicans took issue with the major local funding method for KRM - a $15 car rental fee that would have raised an estimated $4.9 million per year in the three KRM counties.
"In the midst of this billion-dollar discussion, the car rental fee was an ideological roadblock for the Republican side," Lehman said.
Lehman also said that 27 Republican legislators signed a pledge to not increase taxes, and viewed the rental car fee as a tax increase.
"They were unable to see economic development when it was waved right in front of their face," Lehman said.
KRM first entered public dialogue in 1998, when the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission (SEWRPC) completed a feasibility study of KRM Commuter Rail. The feasibility study found KRM Commuter Rail to be technically and financially feasible.