(H/T – J. Rawson Schaller)
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports that, a few short days after Jim Doyle committed Wisconsin to spend all $810 million of Porkulus money earmarked for the Half-Fast Lobbyist HO Train between Milwaukee and Madison, the Department of Transportation sent out a notice to all contractors and consultants working on the rail line to stop working on it. While the contractors and consultants were not given any timeline on how long their work would be “on hold” (though if it is until January 3, it will be permanent), DOT Secretary Frank Busalacchi said that would be “for a few days” until the election results (which saw Scott Walker become governor-elect with historically-high Republican majorities in the Legislature, and commuter-rail-tax questions answered resoundingly in the negative every place it was on the ballot) are balanced against job losses when the work is stopped for good.
Speaking of that, DAAR Engineering, which has a $2.8 million construction management contract, said that they would be forced to lay off two (no, not two dozen, not two hundred, not two thousand) employees if work was permanently stopped. Let’s see – $2.8 million divided by at most 5 years of construction (yes, I’m being generous here), divided by 2 employees comes to $280,000 per job per year.
