Thousands of Wisconsin Jobs Headed South
MADISON – Not 48 hours after winning election and before he is even sworn into office, Scott Walker has cemented his legacy as a jobs killer by killing the Tommy Thompson high-speed rail line that both had previously supported.
The $800 million already detailed for the project, in the works since Walker first voted for it in Thompson’s budget of 1993, will likely go to Virginia or Florida, two states in line for federal infrastructure funds.
Conservative estimates had the project creating thousands of Wisconsin jobs, not to mention the improvements in infrastructure that would have benefited manufacturers, farmers and other producers who would use the rail line to ship freight. Pushed for years by Republicans and Democrats alike, it was part of a larger project to connect Western Wisconsin with Madison, Milwaukee and the Twin Cities.
“Scott Walker took relish with killing jobs-creating programs in Milwaukee and now he begins his march to Madison by strangling economic development even further,” Democratic Party of Wisconsin Chair Mike Tate said Thursday. “He claimed he would create 250,000 jobs. What he didn’t say is that he apparently is going to do it in Florida.”
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