Dear BizTimes:
Here are my reasons for supporting high speed rail for Wisconsin:
- $810 million of work for our engineering firms and contractors and some of our minority & women owned companies. For example, Norris and Associates, a Milwaukee based African-American engineering firm, had won a subconsultant contract with a HSR engineering company. He had just hired 3 engineers and now has had to lay them off. The same is true for all the other companies who had just started to work on HSR contracts.
- The returned money may not just go to Illinois or New York where there are Democratic governors. Other Republican governors would love to have the money. Gov. Rick Perry and the Republican administration of the state of Texas is seeking HSR funds to run trains between Dallas, Austin, San Antonio and Houston. The Republican administration of the state of South Carolina has applied for HSR funding to connect Savannah, Charleston, Florence and parts of North Carolina. The Republican administration of Minnesota has joined the Democratic administration of Wisconsin to study HSR between Minneapolis & Madison. They have received $1 million of planning money from the federal government.
- The United States is in competition with the rest of the world for economic survival. Transportation is a large part of this global effort – we are competing with Japan, China, Brazil and Europe – all of which have already committed to some form of HSR to expand their economy, reduce pollution, provide service to rural areas and to the poor. Wisconsin Governor-elect Scott Walker should understand – this is part of a bigger picture.
- The Tax Foundation in Washington, D.C. studies state tax return ratios – the amount of Federal dollars received compared to the amount of taxes paid per state. For every $1 Wisconsin residents pay to the federal government, we get 80 cents back. The other 20 cents go to other states. For example, New Mexico gets $2.03 back for every tax dollar they pay, Tennessee gets $1.23 for every $1; West Virginia gets $1.76; and South Dakota gets $1.53. So why would Wisconsin send back $800 million? We need to get more of our tax dollars back.
- For the first round of HSR funds, the federal DOT received $57 billion worth of applications while they only had $8 billion to be distributed. Wisconsin got $810 million out of the $8 billion. In the second round, 25 states have filed $8.5 billion of applications to compete for $2.3 billion to be distributed. These other states would love to get their hands on the $810 million that has been awarded to Wisconsin.
- If Wisconsin is really open for business, we would not chase Talgo Inc. and those businesses that will be supporting Talgo out of town – or out of state.
Come on Governor-elect Walker – get on board.
Wallace White is the principal and CEO of W2EXCEL LLC in Milwaukee.
