Republican candidates for governor aren’t backing off on their criticism of the state’s high speed rail deal. On Tuesday, Governor Jim Doyle and Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett were touting the Milwaukee site for a high speed rail assembly facility which will create 125 jobs. But Republican candidate for governor Mark Neumann said that good news can’t be viewed in isolation. “It is a good thing, don’t misunderstand,” Neumann told WRN. “But we have lost over five percent of the entire workforce in the last twelve months in Milwaukee.”
And Neumann said there are still a lot of unanswered questions about the high speed rail line between Madison and Milwaukee. “What does it cost to operate this thing on a long term basis, and who’s going to pay for it?” Neuman said the money being spent on high speed rail would have been better used on tax cuts, and that if high speed rail were economically sound it would already have been built by the private sector.
The other Republican candidate for governor, Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker, has said he’d shut down the Madison to Milwaukee line if takes money away from road projects.