>> If the fund is raided (as Jim Doyle did to the tune of $1.3 billion to pay for other >> programs that better appealed to his supporter base) available dollars for >> bicycling (& transit) are reduced accordingly.
The thing is, while money was taken from the fund, spending didn't go down during the "raids": the money was simply borrowed through bonding to fill the gap, hence bicycling (& transit) don't have to be reduced accordingly. And guess where the money is going to come from to pay off those state bonds? General Purpose revenue! The real consequence of the "raid" boils down to the extra interest that the state incurs as a result of the borrowing. And our Governor has just proposed more borrowing - Walker and Doyle have basically done the same thing! The "raids" canard and AJR2 are tools being used to promote Walker's vision of a "user pays" system of highways, that he suggests will convince voters to support Tolling and Gas Tax increases in the future. In order to make that happen, I suspect he will cut everything but highways and local road aids to pave the way. But I doubt that when the time comes, voters will be willing to absorb those extra fees, seeing as they will have no alternative but to drive on all the new highway miles - and they will feel entitled to the services being subsidized by GPR. Given the current political makeup and the gerrymandering of our state congressional districts, it is unlikely AJR2's protections will benefit bicyclists in Wisconsin for at least the next 7 years. So as I think is obvious now, AJR2 has nothing to do with bicycling, yet the Bike Fed is on record with the GAB as supporting it. It makes me wonder if the Bike Fed understands the situation they are dealing with. _______________________________________________ Bikies mailing list [email protected] http://lists.danenet.org/listinfo.cgi/bikies-danenet.org
