Monthly Archives: November 2008

Busalacchi to Obama administration!!?

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The word “progressive” is rolling over in the dictionary.

WisDOT Secretary Frank Busalacchi, one of the most concrete-pourin’, greenhouse-gas promotin’, water-pollutin’, unimaginative secretaries of transportation around, allegedly is under consideration for a post in the Obama administration. Busalachhi, somehow, has built himself a reputation nationally as a rail advocate, although he really sucks at it here in his home state.

From Traffic World:

Also under consideration are two members of the National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Study Commission, Steve Heminger and Frank Busalacchi.

Heminger, named to the commission by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, is executive director of the San Francisco Bay Area’s Metropolitan Transportation Commission and once was a congressional staffer.

Transportation industry sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Busalacchi, Wisconsin state secretary of transportation since 2003 and a former secretary-treasurer for the Teamsters local in Milwaukee, is a more likely candidate for head of the Federal Railroad Administration.

Selecting Busalacchi for anything wouldn’t be a move to the right by Obama; it would be a move to lunacy. How many times has Busalacchi embarrassed his boss, Gov. Doyle? Are we talking about the $685,000 Marquette Interchange web site? The open records violations? Let’s put that all on the national stage and see how it plays.

TV woes and reading

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Perhaps it’s a sign — heavy television viewing, at least of the free kind, is cursed.

First, take the JS’ unfortunate decision to deliver the Sunday TV Cue only to those who specifically request it. This seemed like a doomed enterprise from the start, seeing as it is coming from a company that regularly screws up simple vacation holds and can’t get subscriptions right if they contain slight deviations from the norm (or, too often, even if they do not).

TV Cue delivery is most important, most likely, to those who do not have cable or satellite TV and their attendant electronic channel guides. Unfortunately, poor planning struck at the heart of the JS plan even before the requested Cue plan had a chance. The JS, asking people to call if they wanted to continue getting something at no additional charge, just didn’t plan on so many people wanting to continue to get something at no additional charge. On Monday, we were treated to this:

To our newspaper readers

We regret any difficulties you may have had reaching the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Circulation Customer Service representatives since Sunday. Because of a record high volume of calls, we’ve been unable to speak personally with each caller about his or her delivery concerns. We’ve also been confirming delivery of the Sunday TV Cue section for our subscribers who opted in to continue receiving it. Please bear with us; we will contact each caller and resolve your issues as promptly as possible. Thanks for your understanding.

Sincerely,
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Circulation Team

That is one free TV  woe. The second comes from the federal government and involves the digital converter box coupons that for which we all are supposed to qualify (that switchover date of Feb. 17 is getting ever closer). Harrrrumph! Yeah, right. The coupons are good for 90 days. Ours expired before the we got them. In fact, I’m still waiting. Many, many other people found that they could not buy a converter box before their coupons expired because stores were slow to stock them.

So, Cueless and boxless, what’s a person to do? Reading is great, but on occasion a person needs the typical TV conscious coma fare of the totally mindless and totally stupid. How to find it and how to get it is not something we should have to think about — kind of ruins the effect of the content.

Mostly silly, but…

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A study suggests that men, the gender dominating Wall Street, may be screwing up Wall Street because they think with their…testosterone. According to the Daily Mail:

The way male testosterone leads to risk-taking behaviour means stock market dealing would be more successful if there were more women on the trading floors, a Cambridge scientist claims today.
Research by neuroscientist Dr John Coates, a former Wall Street trader, has revealed that testosterone and cortisol – associated with high stress levels – can cloud the judgment of the men paid to make big-money deals.

Dr Coates said the traders he tested in the City of London were caught in ‘feedback where levels of the chemicals rose so high they affected their judgment.

Men are just are soooo emotional – you know how they can be when it’s that time of the market.

A Milwaukee gas tax?

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Ald. Jim Bohl said yesterday the city should consider seeking the autority to levy its own gas tax of a couple of cents per gallon to fund local street repairs. Bohl, during a meeting of the Common Council’s Judiciary and Legislation Committee, said that an audit to be released this week will say the city should be spending about $35 million a year on street repairs instead of the $5 million and some it actually is spending (caution:  your correspondent is relying on memory for the numbers).

Bohl made his comments after Paul Vornholt, city intergovernmental relations director, said the city would seek more funding for local road aid in the upcoming state budget. Bohl argued that the state was not going to help the city, and that the road builders, generous to both sides of the political aisle, realized the real money was in building new lanes that eventually will have to be reconstructed, generating more revenue and profit.

The Wisconsin Department of Transportation is seeking just a 1% increase in funding for local road aids in the 2009-11 state budget. Very little of the projects that qualify for the aid actually get it. Last year, general transportation aid (local road aid) paid for just 22.5% of eligible costs for counties and 18.4% for municipalities.

Oil assessment? WisDOT wants it

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The $393 million oil company assessment Gov. Doyle says he will propose for his 2009-11 budget should go to the Wisconsin Department of Transportation, according to WisDOT’s budget request.

The money would help pay for major spending in the next two years including, according to the agency:

  •  $63 million in state funds to continue work on Interstate 94 from Milwaukee to the Illinois state line to meet the scheduled completion date of 2016 (a total of $571 million is proposed for the project is proposed in the budget request);
  • $181 million to begin work on the Zoo Interchange in Milwaukee County so that construction can begin by 2012 and meet a completion date of 2016;
  • $17.0 million to continue implementation of REAL ID;
  • $100 million in General Obligation bonding, with annual debt service payments funded from the Transportation Fund, for transit in SE Wisconsin;
  • expanding Hiawatha passenger train service; and
  • inflationary cost increases for all highway-related programs and local aid programs.

“In addition to these initiatives, rising fuel and utility costs have made it more expensive to maintain current levels of customer service department-wide. For example, higher fuel costs have contributed to a need for additional funding for highway maintenance and for the Division of State Patrol,” WisDOT said. “As demands for transportation funding have increased, revenue growth has not kept pace. ”

Sales of taxable motor fuel declined this year, according to WisDOT.

Source: Wisconsin Department of Transportation.

Doyle said last week that the state is facing a $5 billion deficit. The governor has not said whether he would propose that the oil company assessment go to WisDOT.

The proposed oil assessment would include a provision prohibiting oil companies from passing the cost along to customers, WisDOT said.