Wisconsin: Vote no on the statewide referendum re the DOT transportation fund.

[Scuba]

Vote no on the statewide referendum re the DOT transportation fund. Its language allows them to deny any finding for public transportation, mass transit, electric car re-charging stations, hybrid busses, etc. -- it's a Trojan Horse courtesy of the oil-rich Kochs. Spread the word! The wording on the ballot us very misleading.


http://billmoyers.com/2014/10/03/koch-brothers-war-transit/

Bill Moyers: The Koch Brothers’ War on Transit

Transit advocates around the country were transfixed by a story in Tennessee this April, when the state chapter of Americans for Prosperity made a bid to pre-emptively kill Nashville bus rapid transit. It was an especially brazen attempt by Charles and David Koch’s political network to strong-arm local transportation policy makers. But it was far from the only time the Kochs and their surrogates have taken aim at transit.

...

Americans for Prosperity Indiana was a leading opponent of efforts to expand transit in the Indianapolis region. The group lobbied state officials to kill legislation that allows Indianapolis to hold a tax referendum to expand its transit network.

...

Americans for Prosperity Virginia fought a new tax in Loudoun County to pay for Metro’s Silver Line extension. The organization issued robo-calls calling the extension a “bail-out to rail-station developers,’’ according to the Washington Post. The county Board of Supervisors voted to proceed with the project anyway.

...

Koch-backed organizations were instrumental in sinking Florida’s high-speed rail plans. In 2000, Sunshine State voters passed an amendment to the state’s constitution requiring the state to establish high-speed rail exceeding 120 mph linking its five major cities. But when Governor Rick Scott was elected in 2010 in a wave of Tea Party governors, he fell in line with fellow members of the Republican Governors Association who were killing rail projects on Ohio, Wisconsin and New Jersey.

More at the link.

[dragonlady]

1. The list of supporters tells the story

The legislators voting for this were overwhelmingly Republican, while all those voting no were Democrats. The list of groups supporting are mainly business and road building associations, plus a few unions working in that sector.

Lots of information on the history of the constitutional amendment:
http://ballotpedia.org/Wisconsin_Transportation_Fund_Amendment,_Question_1_%282014%29

[riversedge]

2. A YES vote would give MORE doner $$ to Walker and Repugs!

[sybylla]

3. I wish this had more attention statewide.

Nobody seems to know much about it if anything.

Even the unions don't seem to know who they want to get into bed with on this one.