On behalf of the nearly 7,400 employees we represent, we wish to express the important role regional transportation plays in our economic future. We are committed to ensuring dedicated funding for a balanced regional transit system and encouraging our business colleagues to do the same.
We represent two of southeastern Wisconsin’s largest institutions and provide critical services to thousands of local residents on a daily basis. We understand that a fully-funded transit infrastructure impacts our clients, customers, business, and the economic climate in southeastern Wisconsin. We have hundreds of employees that use buses to get to work every day, however that number continues to decrease as the bus system disintegrates. Continued cuts to the system impair our employees’ ability to get to work and our clients’ and customers’ ability to get critical services and products.
We hope it is clear that we understand firsthand how transit affects our larger community as well as our specific organizations, and we are committed to working with the Legislature to see that a politically and economically sound funding source for transit is implemented in our region during this session.
We are issuing a call to action for our representatives in Madison. We need a truly regional, multi-county, multi-modal regional transit authority including Kenosha, Racine and Milwaukee Counties to be immediately focused on improving bus transit throughout the region and advancing the KRM commuter rail project. We must have a dedicated funding mechanism for transit, which must provide property tax relief, restore routes and rescind fare increases to allow for efficient and effective bus operations throughout the region to allow for economic development and regional growth.
We are willing to call, write or visit with our legislators to communicate the urgency of this issue to our region and our vision for regional transit, we urge residents of Kenosha to do the same.
In summary, our feeling regarding adequately funded regional transportation is simple- get it done. It is our goal, and we hope yours, to work actively to see that it does.
Robert Mariano is chairman and chief executive officer of Roundy’s Supermarkets Inc. in Milwaukee. This blog was co-written by Dick Hansen, president and CEO of Johnson Financial Group Inc., Racine.
17 Comments
This is getting monotonous- we know already that these non-transit riding execs want the KRM and slow train to the Madison airport. As to impacting clients or customers"- how may grocery shoppers at Pic N Save or people that bank at Johnson Bank take the bus? I'm willing to bet less than .01% of their customers. As to speaking for their employees, I would say that is very presumptuous, but I'm not surprised from a corporate egoist like "Chairman Bob", I'm not sure about the Johnson Bank guy- he may just be following orders from Prince Fisk. But hey, do they have an employee survey to support their statement? Let's see it.
We do not need another unaccountable, unelected, taxing authority lording over us. As we have seen with MMSD, the Wisconsin Center Authority, and MATC, these entities are undemocratic, mismanaged, squander tax money, and have total disregard for the citizens and taxpayers. We don't need another fiefdom in southeast Wisconsin. But I see how this top-down taxing authority fits in with the mentality of the self-appointed "we know better" princes and princesses.
Here are a few questions- How will funding for the existing bus service improve if we saddle the taxpayers with a deficit-ridden KRM train? Why won't each county equally share the tax burden for KRM? Why don't these corporations or high paid execs invest their own money in KRM if it such a good idea? Does Chairman Bob know his ego-driven ad campaign is lame and off-putting. And finally, what is the subsidy per ride on the KRM?
"All you need is love,
All you need is love,
All you need is love, love,
Love is all you need."
For some reason, I read Bill's comment, and I thought of this song.
Bill, what's getting monotonous, not to mention tiresome, predictable and tedious, is you showing up to act the curmudgeon every time someone suggests that perhaps, maybe we ought to find a way to improve transportation around here.
Mr. Welke, I'm for improving transportation, but at a reasonable cost and at the most efficient method possible. An unelected regional transit authority, the KRM, and a slow train to the Madison airport do not meet that standard. Not one proponent of these things has provided specific projections, costs, estimates of ridership, or any other specific details regarding these proposals other than platitudes. I'm willing to listen. Please specifically address the issues. Please inform me of the details of the proposals you support for which the taxpayers will pay for. This goes for the rest of pro-KRM, Madison, transit authority group.
How will funding for the existing bus service improve if we saddle the taxpayers with a deficit-ridden KRM train? Why won't each county equally share the tax burden for KRM? Why don't these corporations or high paid execs invest their own money in KRM if it such a good idea? And finally, what is the subsidy per ride on the KRM?
How is a train with stations in downtown Milwaukee and the Madison airport going to help those Roundy's employees? Is Roundy's going to relocate its stores to to sites along the KRM route? Is there a reason why improving our rubber wheeled systems at a small fraction of the cost of rail systems will not serve the Roundy's employees? Why systems consisting of heavy high speed or light rail rapid transit? Why do we need these extremely expensive systems? Are there secret reasons that cannot be stated out loud? If not, why do the proponents refuse to justify their proposals with factual communication rather than with content-free exhortations? Transit proponents should stop evangelizing and provide rational, fact-based arguments. Why don't they?
The purpose of the authority is to help make the data-based decisions you are so concerned may be made based on politics. Furthermore, authorities are subject to the will of the people through their elected officials who select members of the authority; the issue is that people (based on their actions) are indifferent. More important, start to think about SE/SCentral Wisconsin as it could be, not as it is. The hidden economic potential is huge, but will never be tapped with PK-12 schools and transit systems designed for an era long past. Travel to the booming cities of Asia. See how well the export economy of Germany works. You will get a better idea of what is possible and why energy and transit infrastructure is so vital to our future. The best anti-poverty program is a strong economy. If you care about those not in the wealth-class of large business chairmen, you'll support efforts that strengthen our infrastructure and with that our economy.
I can get behind an RTA only if they:
-are volunteers receiving no compensation
-have no authority to tax or impact revenues
-provide quantative analysis and proposals for the region
Actual is that what SEWPC is for ?
Mr Marsh has hit the nail on the head. If this is such a good idea, why is it that these execs that support this pony up their own money for these mass transit ideas? Because they continue to suck down more and more money and cannot support themselves.
What is ironic is that these men support these rail proposals, but as Mr. Lentz says, not a single Pick N Save will be near these train stations. Is "Chairman Bob" going to tear down the existing stores and build new ones. If he does that, I can tell you in my community, the Pick n Save will no longer be close to my home and I will shop else where. On another point, if so many of the customers for these two business come by mass transit, then why do Pick N Save have such large parking lots and why does the drive thru lines at Johnson Bank stay open longer than the lobbies. Must have something to do with the number of clients that visit by car.
I feel I am fighting a losing battle with the people on this "rail" black hole, but I do have one message for "Chairman Bob". I am going to take my families $200 - $300 per week grocery bill, which has for the last 13 years been spent at Pick N Save, and go spend it at Woodmans. And I will be informing all of my neighbors and friends of his stance. Maybe we cannot stop the rail from happenning, but we sure can make Roundy's Inc. feel the pain of their decision to support it. Maybe Bob, you should stop putting your pictures in the store, put your live body in the store and see how your customers really travel to the store and what they think about this train.
Dean, is there a Woodman's near New Berlin? I recently move here from Milwaukee (huge improvement) and do not know of one in this area.
Waaaaaaaaaa .... I don't like how that person thinks about the future, so I'm going to go shop at Woodman's. What a baby. Ya ever shop at Woodman's before? Good luck with that.
Easy matt, just poking fun... People are passionate about this topic to be sure. A little levity can always help. So too could some actual numbers so we can all agree on what we're talking about...
I am glad to see a local CEO take a prominent role in publicly supporting regioinal transit. Also, I want to put in a plug for a possible monorail link bewteen the airport and downtown Milwaukee. While a full monorail service may be impractical, I think a well-designed leg or two may well be doable and would serve to further distinguish Milwaukee. Currently, one of our unusual features is our highly elevated freeways. A monorail line at a good height would seem a good fit and could even serve as a tourist attraction fro Milwaukee.
Whenever some oppositionist talks about rail systems needing deficit funding, never mentioned is the also-true fact that airports, highways and harbors all use billions in public funding as well. Especially airports.
Then there's the total lack of complaints regarding Wisconsin's massive, decades-long contributions into the commuter/high speed rail projects in other cities all across America, either proposed or operating. Never a word of complaint about paying for THEIR rail systems.
No, instead we hear concerns about job creation, passenger expectations, transit-oriented development (TOD), etcetera - concerns that have long since been answered across the nation, making some of us wonder if such oppositionists have done any actual research at all, or are just venting.
Hey, Wisconsin isn't exactly reinventing the (steel) wheel here; commuter/high speed rail is already operating all across America and indeed the world.
Having been to Portland and Seattle (2 cities our leaders want to be like) the one thing that struck me regarding their public transportation was how many buses there were. During peak hours, you could ride the buses in Seattle for free. We moved around both cities easily without ever hopping a train.
If we must spend this money why not upgrade the bus service so that it is more frequent and free during rush hours?
We already have a train that goes to Chicago. You can either take the Metra out of Kenosha or the Amtrak out of Milwaukee. Both are good options for traveling to that city. Will anyone really take a train from Milwaukee to Racine? Milwaukee to Kenosha?
Will "Chairman" Bob start locating his businesses on the train line. To be honest, he better or else this is just a lot of talk from a guy who wants to seem cool to the media.
Michael Bark wrote: "We already have a train that goes to Chicago. You can either take the Metra out of Kenosha or the Amtrak out of Milwaukee." ---Using that argument, we already have a limited-access highway, I-94, that goes to Chicago too. And we also have slower highways and byways - WI 32, WI 31, WI 38 and county roads - that serve the population centers in between. Else the comparison is only I-94 with one offramp at Sturtevant and another at Glenview. As to the question "Will anyone really take a train from Milwaukee to Racine? Milwaukee to Kenosha?", there has been a train from Chicago to Kenosha and return since May 19, 1855.
The high speed trains are clearly the way to go! Even Obama mentioned this initiative in his 2011 state of the union address. Lets keep writing our congressman for this goal of better regional transit sla systems. This certainly will be a big cost to future generations if we don't act now.
High speed rails could work, but how do you get car crazy Americans to buy into it? Rapid prototyping would speed rapid rails