U.S. Infrastructure Crumbling, Nation Falling Behind Developing Countries
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When it comes to maintaining and improving its roads, bridges and other transportation facilities, the United States is falling behind even developing nations and Congress is showing no will to address the crisis, according to a report released this week by the Urban Land Institute. Further:
Despite the nation’s unemployment woes, the vast job-creation potential of infrastructure projects is being sidetracked by concerns about government spending appetites and potential cost overruns.
In contrast with its global competition, the report notes, after more than 30 years of conspicuously underfunding infrastructure,
the United States is lurching along a problematic course—potentially losing additional ground.
So far, Hurricane Katrina and the New Orleans levee breach have not been a big enough wakeup call; neither was the 2007 Minneapolis bridge collapse, according to Infrastructure 2011: A Strategic Priority. Meanwhile, China is moving closer to completing the world’s largest high-speed train network, a 10,000-mile honeycomb linking major cities across an expanse similar in size to the United States. But the high-speed train is only a small part of a Read the rest of this entry »
Lies, More Lies and Wis.’s Gov. Walker
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Our friends at AFSCME have pulled together facts that refute the “misinformation”—to put a polite gloss on it—Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker has perpetrated throughout his attacks on the ability of public employees to achieve and mantain a middle-class life. Check it out.
Wisconsin did not have a budget deficit before Scott Walker took office. On Jan. 31, the Wisconsin Legislative Fiscal Bureau released a memo projecting a $121.4 million surplus for the state. Walker created the “budget crisis” by providing $116 million in tax breaks to corporations, squandering the surplus. Walker’s budget proposal includes another $83 million in tax breaks for multistate corporations and investors.
Walker refused to sit down with unions to help fix the Wisconsin budget. Public employee unions agreed to all of Walker’s fiscal demands, including doubling their health care premium contribution to 12.6 percent and contributing 5.8 percent of their salary to pensions, which according to Walker would save the state $300 million over the next two years. Despite this, Walker forced through legislation stripping public employees of their collective bargaining rights and to this day has refused to sit down with them.
Walker Wants Part of Rejected High-Speed Rail Funds Back
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Remember when Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) told the federal government it could shove $810 million in high-speed rail funding that was estimated to create nearly 15,000 jobs? Now he wants some of that money back.
The cancelled project, one in which the City of Milwaukee had already spent $10 million on in preparation, would have provided a vital commuter connection between Milwaukee and Madison and spurred future economic development.
After Walker rejected the money, the Department of Transportation (DOT) redistributed it to other states. But now Walker has asked DOT for $150 million for a high speed rail line between Milwaukee and Chicago.
Much of what Walker says he wants to use the money for on the Milwaukee-Chicago line– including upgrading the rail bed, equipment and a maintenance facility–was part of the original grant.
So, apparently Walker supports the concept of high-speed rail and doesn’t mind federal funds, as long as it doesn’t help get people—especially those pesky protesters—quicker to Madison.
No word yet from DOT Walker’s back track.
Walker’s One Month Legacy: Job Killer
Most governors taking office hope to create jobs for their constituents.
Not Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R). Before his massive attack on the middle-class jobs of Wisconsin public employees, he rejected federal funding for the creation of high-speed rail that would have added more than 14,000 family-supporting jobs to his state.
Here’s the breakdown of job and income loss because of Walker’s action:
• LOST: 4,732 construction jobs.
• LOST: 9,570 permanent jobs.
• LOST: $173 million in additional Wisconsin household income.
On top of that, Walker’s move actually COST taxpayers TONS of money: By returning the $810 million in federal funding for this project, Wisconsin must pay back the federal government and contractors for work already done.
And this guy thinks he should have credibility to run a state?
AFL-CIO, Chamber in Rare Agreement, Urge Infrastructure Investments
The AFL-CIO and the Chamber of Commerce don’t agree on very much. But today, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka and Chamber President Thomas Donohue told a Senate committee that labor and business agree on the vital need to invest in the nation’s transportation infrastructure to create jobs and boost the economy.
Trumka told the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee that the joint appearance “does not mean that hell has frozen over or that unicorns are now roaming the land.”
The fact is, while there are many policy areas where we have sharp differences, we both realize that our country needs to step up our “Investment in America” for business as well as working Americans to succeed.
Republican Transportation Cuts Are Job Killers
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This is cross-post from the National Journal’s Transportation blog by AFL-CIO Transportation Trades Department (TTD) President Edward C. Wytkind.
It is ironic that the Republican Study Committee’s (RSC’s) proposal to slash vital transportation investments was unveiled on the very day that we learned that Americans spend as many as 70 hours—or nearly three solid days—a year stuck in traffic. The Texas Transportation Institute’s national study also revealed that congestion wastes 3.9 billion gallons of fuel and costs $115 billion nationwide on an annual basis. If passed, the RSC’s proposals will add to the woes of commuters and travelers and destroy good jobs.
Their proposal to slash investment and eliminate jobs was also offered on the day that a national poll reminded us that the public’s clear priorities are the economy and jobs. The Pew Research Center poll reveals a public that wants answers to its unemployment problem. Despite the fact that this new Congress that was sent to Washington to fix the economy and create jobs, this opening salvo would only make these problems worse.
Hundreds of thousands of jobs would be eliminated by the proposed cuts to transportation programs alone—at a time when nationwide unemployment struggles to stay below 10 percent. These proposed cuts—to mass transit development, Amtrak, high-speed rail, Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, the Essential Air Service program and more—would deal a major blow to millions of Americans who want more transportation choices, not fewer.
Republican Govs. Blow Off Money for Jobs
All aboard the economic absurdity express!
In two states where workers are desperate for jobs—Wisconsin, where the jobless rate is 9.4 percent, and Ohio, where it’s 9.9 percent—the incoming governors rejected $1.2 billion in federal funding for high-speed rail projects, which would have created tens of thousands of good jobs.
Republican Governors-elect Scott Walker (Wis.) and John Kasich (Ohio) have turned away hundreds of millions of dollars to build the rail lines and buy the made-in-America equipment because their states would have to share a few million dollars a year in operating costs. That’s like turning down a free car because you have to pay for gas.
Union, Community Activists Rally to Save Wisconsin High-Speed Rail
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Wisconsin AFL-CIO field communications coordinator Karen Hickey sends us this report on a rally to save a high-speed rail project and its nearly 15,000 jobs that Republican Gov.-elect Scott Walker says he will cancel.
This afternoon, some 350 concerned citizens representing a broad coalition of labor and community organizations rallied in Milwaukee to protest Gov.-elect Scott Walker’s decision to stop construction on an $810 million high-speed rail project.
Canceling the project—which would provide a vital commuter connection between Milwaukee and Madison and spur future economic development—will cost Wisconsin both family-supporting jobs and money. Wisconsin State AFL-CIO President Phil Neuenfeldt told the crowd:
The federal government has made it clear that these funds cannot be diverted to other projects or used for other purposes. Now that the election campaign rhetoric is dying down, we are very hopeful that Gov.-elect Walker will take a look at the facts and allow rail development to move forward.
Union Activists Counter Unprecedented Election Cash from Corporations, Front Groups
West Virginia Fire Fighters (IAFF), California Ironworkers and Painters and Allied Trades (IUPAT) and AFGE members across the country are fighting back against the hundreds of millions of dollars Republicans, corporations and phony front groups are pouring into the November elections.
In West Virginia, you’ll remember that a Republican TV ad for multimillionaire and mostly Florida resident John Raese’s campaign for the U.S. Senate used actors—encouraged to come to the auditions looking “hicky” in trucker caps and flannel shirts—to portray West Virginians.
The outcry over that condescending slap in the face to real West Virginia voters forced the National Republican Senatorial Committee to pull the ad last week. Now, some IAFF members who are real West Virginians are on the air (see video) backing Gov. Joe Manchin (D). In a commercial airing around the Mountain State, Mark Roberts, a Dunbar firefighter (IAFF Local 1228 member), says:
Joe Manchin doesn’t hire Philadelphia actors to play hicks in his ads. We need a real West Virginian to fight for us in the U.S. Senate.
IAFF President Harold Schaitberger says the Raese ad was offensive:
We didn’t have to ship in East Coast actors who pretend to support Joe because West Virginia is filled with firefighters who are proud to support him. West Virginians realize that Joe Manchin has been a fantastic governor, and they also understand that his legacy of service provides evidence that he will be an even better senator.
Coming Soon: High-Speed Rail and 750,000 New Jobs
In the near future, we will be able to travel what is now a seven-hour trip from San Francisco to Los Angeles in just two-and-a-half hours in a high-speed train that eliminates the hassle of traffic and adds fewer emissions to pollute the atmosphere.
In a new video (left) from the Electrical Workers (IBEW), Bill Bohné, director of the union’s Rail Department, says the plan to build a high-speed rail system in California is good for the economy. California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger estimates the high-speed system will generate 600,000 construction and utility jobs and 150,000 permanent railway jobs.
Bohné says this is the right time for a move to high-speed rail:
High-speed rail will change transportation in this country in the 21st century the way the interstate highway system changed it in the 20th century. This couldn’t have come at a better time, especially with this economic downturn.
