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No Runny Eggs

The repository of one hard-boiled egg from the south suburbs of Milwaukee, Wisconsin (and the occassional guest-blogger). The ramblings within may or may not offend, shock and awe you, but they are what I (or my guest-bloggers) think.

Archive for posts by steveegg.

December 21, 2006

DC court whacks McCain-Feingold

by @ 23:59. Filed under Politics - National.

Remember those ads from Wisconsin Right to Life back in 2004, asking us to try to get Russ el-Slimeroad and Nobody’s Senator to break the filibustering of various judicial nominees? They were initially busted under the McShame-Slimeroad Lieberal Protection Act because el-Slimeroad was running for re-election at the time. After having the case sent back to them by the Supreme Court with instructions to “consider the merits of WRTL’s as-applied challenge in the first instance”, the DC District Court ruled 2-1 that it is, indeed, unconstitutional for Congress to prohibit mentioning a federal candidate’s name within 30 days of a primary or 60 days of a general election if the aim of mentioning that name is to influence public policy.

“Financing” the local portion of the commuter choo-choo

by @ 23:30. Filed under Choo-choos, Politics - Wisconsin, Taxes.

The “geniuses” behind the KRM white elephant, er, commuter rail have a real wiener of an idea to finance this albatross: a 0.05% sales tax in Milwaukee, Racine and Kenosha Counties to provide $8 million per year. Let’s see; assuming their numbers are right (and they’ve been previously blown up), they start the project $157 million in the hole (assuming no additonal fed funding; the 90% fed funding they want would still leave them $23.7 million short) and have to make up $10.9 million per year in the difference between fares and operating costs. Oops; last time I checked, you can’t do that on $8 million/year, and that’s assuming the Craps’ Department of Revenue coughs up all the money due this latest unelected taxing authority (something they have a problem with). Guess those “other funding options” will inevitably creep back into the mix.

What’s worse, they want to give the county boards authority to levy a 0.45% sales tax to “shift” the cost of running the buses off the property tax rolls. Seeing we have 14 tax-and-spend-and-tax-and-spend-and-spend-and-taxers on the 19-member Milwaukee County Board, there’s another $45 million or so in tax and spending increases. They will see to it that there is no property tax relief, as there are portraits of Thug Holloway to be made, pensions to be doled out, union Rip Van Winkles to be “employed”, and deputies to have sit on the freeways to generate even more revenue.

Taxes, taxes, taxes, taxes

by @ 23:05. Filed under Politics - Wisconsin, Taxes.

In case you’ve been in a cave the last 2 days, I have some good news and some bad news for city of Milwaukee property owners (of which my dad is one):

The good – The city of Milwaukee forgot to include an additional $9 million tax increase requested by Milwaukee Public Schools.

The bad – MPS isn’t going to forego the money, and instead of sending out a special assessment to immediately collect that money, the city is going to borrow it so that the $9 million will turn into $14 million or so once interest is figured in.

December 19, 2006

Shuttle and space station to be visible just after sunset

by @ 15:38. Filed under Miscellaneous.

The local National Weather Service office says that the Space Shuttle and International Space Station will be visible for serveral minutes just after sunset this afternoon. They got the website with the details wrong; it’s http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/sightings (typical gubmint employees :-)

Cool!

Fresh from the mind of David Zucker…

by @ 12:00. Filed under Politics - National, War on Terror.

(H/T – Allahpundit)

…comes a history lesson. Since negotiating with the last madman who wanted to kill all the Jews went sooooo well, James Baker wants to repeat that experience.

Cheddarsphere update – Week 16

by @ 9:18. Filed under Miscellaneous.

Like Fred, I’ve been a bit lax in my fantasy football updates. After suffering the upset of the year Week 7 to Brian Fraley and the No Bid Contracts, I’ve been on fire, taking the regular-season title outright at 11-2, scoring the most points at 1536.69 (100+ 12 of 13 weeks) and earning a first-round bye in the playoffs.

I drew first blood on the Warriors (7-6), with Frank Gore dropping 144 yards rushing, 34 yards receiving and a touchdown on both the Seahags and the Warriors. The Warriors came out to play, with 7 players going into double digits, led by Ladell Betts’ 16.20 (119 yards rushing, 43 yards receiving), but they didn’t come out to win. The coupe de grace and my ticket to the championship game was delivered by LaDanian Tomlinson, who contributed 199 yards on the ground and 2 touchdowns to obliterate the all-time scoring record, the Chefs and my opponent 126.06 to 102.02.

Speaking of Fred, TheDebateTeam (11-3) pulled off a miraculous comeback on the strength of Peyton Manning’s 4-touchdown, 37.89-ponit performance to knock off the feel-good story of the year, Sanders’ Sabers (7-8), 106.09 to 100.23 and set up the rematch of the titans. Rex Grossman (26.03) and Steven Jackson (24.70) couldn’t deliver enough for Owen.

In the 5th-place game, the City Workers (9-6) used a dominating 26.60-point performance from Marvin Harrison to pull away from the Killer Boars (9-6), 82.06 to 70.30. Harrison’s teammate, Reggie Wayne, led the Boars with 14.40.

Up next: the third-place game between Sanders’ Sabers and Warriors, and The Cheddar Bowl featuring your humble host’s team, Spiraling Colby, against TheDebateTeam. Time for an extended look at the Rematch of the Titans:

QB – Matt Leinart (at San Francisco)/Alex Smith (vs Arizona) against Peyton Manning (at Houston) – The good news for me; both the Niners’ and Cards’ pass defenses (27th and 30th) suck. The bad; so does the Texans’ (24th). The ugly; the youngsters are nowhere near Manning in demonstrated ability, and I can’t play them both.

RB – LaDanian Tomlinson (at Seattle)/Willie Parker (vs Baltimore)/Frank Gore (vs Arizona) against Jamal Lewis (at Pittsburgh)/Brian Westbrook (at Dallas)/Reggie Bush (at the Giants) – The Parker/Lewis matchup is a stout defense wash (Parker’s better, but so are the OldBrowns; #2 against the rush versus #5 for Pittsburgh). All-World LT looks to run wild against #22 Seattle, and Gore faces a mid-pack (#16) Card defense. Westbrook can expect tough sledding on the ground against Dallas (#7 rush/#20 pass), and Bush can expect the same against the G-men (#11 rush/#28 pass).

WR – Terry Glenn (vs Philadelphia)/Lee Evans (vs Tennessee) against Andre Johnson (vs Indianapolis)/Chris Chambers (vs the Jets) – I’m hoping the Eagles (#12 against the pass) are too preoccupied stopping TO a second time to worry about She. Evans looks to continue his resurgence against a porous Titan pass defense (#25). Johnson will be going up against the strength of the Colts’ defense (#2 against the pass, but #32 against the run), while Chambers faces a middling Jets’ pass defense (#18).

TE – Randy McMichael (vs the Jets) against Owen Daniels (vs Indianapolis) – See the appropriate commentary in the WR section.

K – Jeff Wilkins (vs Washington) against John Kasay (at Atlanta) – Both kickers are in domes, so weather won’t be a factor.

Defense – Kansas City (at Oakland) against Buffalo (at Tennessee) – They’re next to each other in the middle of defensive rankings, but Oakland has NO offense.

The bench – Smith/Leinart (whichever QB I don’t start)/Greg Jennings (WR-vs Minnesota)/Marcus Robinson (WR-at Green Bay)/Ben Watson (TE-at Jacksonville)/John Carney (K-at the Giants)/Green Bay (Defense-vs Minnesota) against Philip Rivers (QB-at Seattle)/Wali Lundy (RB-at Indianapolis)/Roy Williams (WR-vs Chicago)/Reche Caldwell (WR-at Jacksonville)/Bo Scaife (TE-at Buffalo)/Philadelphia (Defense-at Dallas) – I know that the bench doesn’t score any points, but they’re insurance against injuries popping up midweek. Let’s review them anyway.

For the Colby, I’ll probably choose the wrong QB to bench :-) . Jennings has hit the rookie wall hard. Robinson and Watson missed Week 16 with injuries and face unfavorable matchups even if they were healthy. Carney’s kicking out of doors this week. I figure I rode the Green Bay defensive train as far as they’re good for, especially with the other matchup I put together with some post-season maneuvering.

For the Debaters, Rivers has the misfortune of backing up Manning. Lundy has disappeared from the Texans’ rotation. Williams faces his second tough defensive backfield in 2 weeks, this time with a real secondary coach back there. Caldwell appears to have fallen out of favor with Tom Brady. Scaife missed this past week with an ankle injury and is expected to be questionable for this week. Philly faces a potent Cowboys offense.

December 18, 2006

Whack-a-ISG recommendation

by @ 13:10. Filed under Politics - National, War on Terror.

Aaron’s doing it piecemeal so I don’t have to dredge through the abortion that Lee Hamilton and James Baker spewed forth. I just might anyway because many of those “recommendations” are putrid.

Whack-a-WEAC

by @ 12:54. Filed under Politics - Wisconsin, Taxes.

With the re-election of Jim “Craps” Doyle (WEAC-Potawatomi/For Sale) and the takeover of the state Senate by the ‘Rats, the not-so-little piggies known as WEAC are jumping right to the head of the line to increase their cut of higher taxes. If I weren’t so late to this party, I would be pointing out how the average public school teacher in Wisconsin took home 20% more money in 2003 than the average Wisconsin worker did in 2005 like Dad29 (this for working 20% fewer days), or how the public school teachers get Rolls Royce benefits at almost no cost to them like Peter (numbers not reflected in salary), or even how the total compensation package goes up a guaranteed 3.8% per year like Owen (if the rank-and-file don’t see that money, they really need to talk to their union and their union-owned Rolls Royce benefit manager).

December 15, 2006

Yet another for the roll

by @ 9:09. Filed under The Blog.

Sure, the proprietor of Traction Control isn’t a Cheddarhead, but Texans are the next best thing. If the common sense and the guns don’t grab you, the Christmas greetings will.

It sometimes pays to be part of the TTLB Ecosystem and have Technorati catch incoming links.

December 14, 2006

If you didn’t think of this before, it’s too late now

by @ 8:52. Filed under Politics - National.

The United States Mint has, on its own law-making “authority”, made it illegal to melt your pennies and nickels, carry coins out of the country for anything other than “legitimate coinage and numismatic purposes”, or take more than $100 worth of pennies and nickels out in any one shipment. It seems that a melted-down zinc penny is currently worth 1.12¢, a melted-down copper penny is worth 2.13¢, and a melted-down nickel is worth 6.99¢. The federal price to pay for doing something that is not lucrative short of melting billions of coins – 5 years in Club Fed and $10,000 (plus the seizure of everything you own as you’re treated like a drug dealer).

Who the fuck does the Mint think it is, Congress?

December 13, 2006

Pentagon to cut-and-runners – stuff it

by @ 11:52. Filed under War on Terror.

(H/T – Allahpundit)

The Los Angeles Times is reporting that the Pentagon is going to ask for some more troops (perhaps as many as 40,000 to join the 140,000 currently there) to go along with the rest of its plan for victory in Iraq. The rest of the plan:

– More industrial aid to Iraq
– An offensive against Muqtada al-Sadr’s Shiite insurgents
– Another offensive against the Sunni insurgents in Al Anbar province

Hopefully, the rules of engagement will be simple; see the enemy, kill same. Hopefully the ‘Rats in Congress will vote for victory instead of defunding, but I’m not holding my breath.

Hey Doyle, where’s the average Wisconsinite home owner’s $5?

by @ 10:55. Filed under Politics - Wisconsin, Taxes.

Imagine my shock when I opened up today’s Milwaukee Journal Sentinel this morning and found this headline – Median property tax bill in state up $7. Instead of the pap and self-congratulations both parties heaped on each other for this latest increase contained within (I’ll get to that in a minute), let me bring in a quote from Jim “Craps” Doyle (WEAC/Potawatomi-For Sale) when he created his expiring tax anti-freeze, as carried by that very newspaper – “‘The result of the freeze that I will sign will be that the average property tax on the average home will not go up at all next year, and will actually go down $5’ in December 2006.” So, where’s the $5, Jim? Better make that $12, because they’ve gone up an average of $7.

Republican Assemblyman Dean Kaufert, the incoming Assembly co-chair of the Joint Finance Committee, didn’t exactly cover himself in glory by calling that “laudable”. What’s laudable about another record property tax intake of $8,700,000,000?

As for the excuses for the high property tax intake, let’s take a look at them:

  • Homeowners pay about 70% of all property taxes, according to the Legislative Fiscal Bureau. – What a canard. Even if 100% of the property tax levy were shifted to businesses, the people of Wisconsin will end up paying nearly 100% of the property tax levy in the end.
  • Wisconsin’s public schools must largely rely on property taxes. Of the $8.7 billion total property tax levy, $3.7 billion – or about 42% – will go for public schools, Schmiedicke said. – Wait a minute; I thought Craps was having somewhere north of 60% of the costs of schools paid for by the state. I don’t know if it’s 2/3rds anymore, but assuming that it is, we’re spending $11.1 billion on schools, for what?

    One more thing about the $3.7 billion. That’s $200 million $550 million less than the $3.9 billion $4.25 billion Dem Senator Jon Erpenbach wants to jack up sales taxes by to replace the school property tax. Jon, you mean to tell me that the state needs more than 5% just to manage this, and we have to give the counties somewhere north of $500 million more in the process?

  • Wisconsin has more local governments, which levy and spend property taxes, “than all but the largest states, such as California and Texas,” said Todd Berry, president of the non-profit Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance. – Guess it’s time for some consolidation
  • The Legislature has refused to let local governments levy local-option sales or income taxes, said Andrew Reschovsky, a University of Wisconsin-Madison economics professor. – And for that, I’m thankful. It’s bad enough that counties, a couple stadium boards and the idiots that run the Midwest Airlines (soon to be AirTran Airways) Center get to levy sales taxes.

Moving the blog to its own domain

by @ 6:31. Filed under The Blog.

Hopefully by the time you read this, I’ll have everything set up. I’ll be at http://www.norunnyeggs.com.

I’ve had too many problems with running this on a subdomain (and a couple related to running it through Yahoo).

December 6, 2006

Still alive

by @ 7:05. Filed under Miscellaneous.

Just been busy and discombobulated. I’ll have some fresh meat up later today.

December 1, 2006

It could be worse

by @ 7:24. Filed under Miscellaneous.

We could be in southern Michigan. They’re getting an ice storm, with a half-inch of ice expected to play havoc with roads, power and trees.

November 30, 2006

So the Baker/Hamilton Commission is going for Retreat and Defeat

by @ 14:07. Filed under Politics - National, War on Terror.

Allahpundit and Peter analyze it pretty damn well. Make no mistake; even though there is no firm timetable for the last chopper to leave the US Embassy in Baghdad under enemy fire, negotiating with the two thuggish countries that are turning Iraq into a hellhole along with a reduced presence both in numbers and in role for our troops over there will inevitably have the same effect on Iraq and Lebanon that negotiating with North Vietnam did for South Vietnam and Cambodia, namely a collapse of governments not necessarily anti-American in favor of virulently-anti-American ones. The effect in the rest of the world will also mirror the Vietnam experience; other countries will (rightly) see the US as an untrustworthy partner, unwilling to protect any interests that can’t be done via a short cruise-missile barrage.

One thing left untouched by just about everybody; Iraq will be turned into an unblockable superhighway between Iran and the frontier of Israel. Hope everybody likes strontium-90 and caesium-137 in their food, because one way or the other, that inevitable war will go nuclear.

Carnival of the Badger: The Pitching Coach is up

by @ 11:03. Filed under Carnival of the Badger.

Nick has filled in for the ailing Phel, and serves me up a fat fastball. Get up, get way out of here, and GONE!

Oh the weather outside is frightful

by @ 10:13. Filed under Miscellaneous.

Or at least it will be, if the weathermen are right. 6-10 inches by about this time tomorrow. Time to review the checklist:

– Boots; check
– Full-time AWD vehicle; check
– Snowblower; check
– Snow brush/icescraper; check
– Canned laughter for when the overspending/overtaxing/underperforming Oak Creek-Franklin School District shuts down; check

I am ready. Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.

New Berlin mayor robbing from the taxpayers to give to the city

by @ 7:09. Filed under Politics - Wisconsin, Taxes.

Matt Thomas has all the details, including an update from one of the 2 aldermen who voted to not rob the taxpayers blind. To sum it up, the city of New Berlin, after finding out how much the School Tax Levy Credit was going to be, used that money to justify increasing their budget despite direction from both the state Department of Revenue and the Legislative Fiscal Bureau to not consider that money as revenue for the city (or any other taxing authority). Thomas, who is Vice President of the New Berlin School Board, was not informed by the city that this credit had increased before the New Berlin Common Council meeting last night, where the budget was adopted, despite the city knowing since no later than November 22.

If any of you Photoshop geniuses can do Matt a favor, he’d like a pic of Chiovatero/Swiper/Robin Hood/Fonzie jumping a shark.

November 29, 2006

One less loser on the Pubbie side

by @ 11:02. Filed under Politics - National.

(Too many hat-tips to give out, so I’ll just choose one from random – Sean Hackbarth)

Former Senate Republican “Leader” Bill Frist has announced he won’t run for President. From his statement:

Twelve years ago, I pledged to the people of Tennessee that I would serve two terms in the Senate – to serve as a true citizen legislator – and then return home. I said I’d come to the Senate with 20 years experience in healing, spend 12 years serving in Washington, then go right back to Tennessee to live where I grew up. I’ve never deviated from that commitment. And I will do just that.

In the Bible, God tells us for everything there is a season, and for me, for now, this season of being an elected official has come to a close. I do not intend to run for president in 2008.

I’ll give Frist, who I’ve derided as Cave Jr, his due. He knows how to keep his word. Now, where is the next Reagan?

November 28, 2006

Least-surprising news of the day

by @ 13:15. Filed under Miscellaneous.

Guess it’s going to be Chinese food from the Sow, er, Hog 102.9. JSOnline’s DayWatch is reporting that Guns N’ Roses has cancelled their show, scheduled for the Bradley Center Wedneday at 8 pm. Allegedly, Axl Rose has strep throat and an ear infection, but that didn’t stop him from playing in Chicago Monday, or cancel plans to make the next stop in corn country.

November 27, 2006

Testing manual ping to Blogrolling

by @ 8:24. Filed under Miscellaneous.

Seems Blogrolling isn’t automatically getting the updates from here, so I’m trying a manual ping to Blogrolling. Please ignore.

Sales tax to increase even more

by @ 7:52. Filed under Politics - Wisconsin, Taxes.

Instead of working to comply with a federal law that makes collecting sales tax on internet access charges illegal, 2 different groups are looking at adding more items to the sales tax roll, both to allegedly relieve property tax pressure. Before I explode both plans, as well as the Journal Sentinel call for taxing absolutely, positively everything (with the exception of newspapers), haven’t we tried this before, with the state promising 2/3rds funding for schools? That wasn’t all that successful, as the spend-and-taxers on school boards realized that they just tapped into a bottomless pit.

First, Dem State Senator Jon Erpenbach wants to tax everything except the “necessities of life”, which he and the linked Journal Sentinel story defines as including food, drugs, health care services, shelter, and agricultural products (remember this list, I’ll come back to it later), so that the state can assume full funding for schools. That is a $3 billion/year sales tax increase. Erpenbach wins the Stupid Quote of the Day Award for uttering this gem, “Most everybody, at the end of the day, will have more money in their pocket.” The ONLY groups that will have more money at the end of the day are, in order, the school districts, builders of schools, WEAC, administrators, and teachers. The last vestige of restraint on spending, the risk of running everybody out of town because of skyrocketing property taxes, will be gone.

Erpenbach also wins the runner-up for the Stupid Quote of the Day Award for not saying the corollary to this quote, “For every exemption that was handed out, there was no cut in spending.” Logically, that corollary is, “For every new item taxed, spending will increase by at least the amount taken in by said new tax.”

Next, the Wisconsin Counties Association wants additional sales tax revenue to avoid having to slow down their massive spending appetites. They’re whining that local governments only got 14.8% of all state spending in the current budget, down from the 27% of all state spending they got in the 1989-91 budget. Cry me a river; I’ll lay dollars to donuts that 14.8% this budget represents more money than 27% in the 1989-91 budget. I’ll even throw in a quarter or two for a donut hole that it is greater even after adjusting for inflation. Even if it doesn’t, why in the hell should somebody up in, say, Tomah, pay for, say, retiring Milwaukee County DA E. Michael McCann’s enhanced pension (that’s right; unless I missed something, McCann never signed away one dime of the enhanced pension).

In any case, they want what they term a $700 million/year sales tax increase, with that money diverted to the counties, so they can continue to do stupid stuff like give lavish pensions. Unlike Erpenbach, they actually list their targets – computer, legal, personnel, architectural, engineering, and surveying services, advertising, management consulting, public relations, accounting, beauty salons, barbershops (that’s funny, I paid sales tax on my last haircut), and health clubs. You can safely add another $50 million to the individual counties that levy the 0.5% county sales tax, because I doubt they included that little kicker in there.

Those are the same taxes that Erpenbach wants to raise and divert to schools. Guess the counties will just have to “suffer” with the $250 million in additional sales taxes they’ll get from levying the 0.5% county sales tax (assuming, of course, the Craps’ Department of Revenue coughs up the dough; have they caught up on what they owe the counties yet?).

WCA executive director Mark O’Connell also wants in on the Stupid Quote of the Day competition; he spews out, “We continue to believe that we can tax-cut our way to prosperity when, in reality, the wealth-makers of tomorrow are more interested in a quality of life. If we wish to create a sustainable solution for Wisconsin’s future, we should be investing in our communities, making them attractive to smart young people.” Hey dummy, have you looked at where the jobs are being created lately? It’s not high-tax Wisconsin.

However, they’re both pikers compared to the Journal Sentinel’s Steven Walters and Bob Veierstahler. Walters stresses again and again that they’re “exemptions” and that eliminating them could bring in $3.9 billion per year. He sure seems to want to go one step further and raise the actual rate, pointing out that it was last raised 24 years ago, then whines that nobody in the Capitol wants to do so.

Veierstahler put together a “helpful” chart of exemptions, and what is shocking is what’s included:

– Food, right at the top of the list – Erpenbach and the WCA don’t even want to go that far.
– Fuel – Guess Veierstahler doesn’t think either the gas taxes or gas prices are high enough.
– Sales to state and local governments – Nothing like taxing oneself to inflate the numbers by $228 million.
– Live game birds and clay pigeons – I’ll lay even more dollars to donuts that Veirstahler doesn’t believe there is an individual right to bear arms enshrined in both the state and federal Constitutions.
– Admission to elementary and secondary school events – Well, at least that might cut down a bit on the violence at MPS basketball games.

November 25, 2006

Now THAT’S a shot

by @ 21:19. Filed under Miscellaneous.

JSOnline’s DayWatch has the details on shot of the deer hunting season. 13-year-old Ryan Roman, on his second hunt, got a two-for-one deal on his first kill. Excellent shot, Ryan.

I wonder if the DNR will be going after him for taking too many deer.

Meet the new route, same as the old route

by @ 15:02. Filed under Choo-choos, Politics - Wisconsin.

Well, not quite the same; the newest proposal for running choo-choos between Milwaukee and Kenosha has a few changes designed to screw Joe Taxpayer:

  • It will no longer be a Metra train. That means those that want to take this choo-choo to Chicago would have to change trains at either Kenosha or Waukegan. It also means that the local choo-choo enthusiasts will have to build a new rail yard and facilities, and do their own maintenance, rather than leech off of Metra.
  • Because of that, and because they’re throwing in a Bay View station (which would have to be built from scratch, just like the ones planned for Cudahy, South Milwaukee, Oak Creek, Caledonia and Somers), the build cost has increased from $152 million to $237 million. Even though they’re hoping for 90% funding from the feds, there’s only $80 million in the till from them for this project.
  • Even the one “positive” of not leeching off of Metra, the scheduling of more round trips (14 versus 7 during the week, 7 versus 3 on weekends and holidays) turns into a nightmare. Between doing their own maintenance and running more choo-choos, they’re looking at a conservative estimate of recurring costs at $14.7 million per year. They’re hoping for $3.8 million in fares from the 1.43 million rides provided, each charged something less than $10 for a trip between Kenosha and Milwaukee (there’s so many problems with this math, but more on that in a moment).

Houston, we have a problem. We have a main ridership overestimate, a master caution light on the construction costs, multiple warnings and buzzers. Let’s start at the top:

  • Construction costs – In 3 years, this estimate has gone up 55.9%. Even that number will prove to be not nearly high enough. Fire up Google Earth once and try to trace the route from the Kenosha train station to the Milwaukee one. Take note of two things: the single track for most of the distance and the lack of a direct path.

    First, the single track. That is an active freight line, serving the Oak Creek power plant. Can you say, “There will be delays driving down ridership.”? I knew you could. Notice that south of Kenosha, there are two tracks on the line. In the interest of fairness, however, I will note that the major structures to restore the line to a 2-track line (i.e. bridges) remain and (presumably) will not need to be rebuilt. Indeed, for 14 round trips per day to be reached, that second set of tracks will need to be laid down.

    Next, the lack of a direct path. The Union Pacific line curves west away from the Lake Parkway just north of St. Francis Ave (it, and a line that continues north, actually both curve together into the westbound line, but to get from one north-south line to the other, a train would need to back up). While it does appear that it connects to the Canadian Pacific line that Amtrak runs on under I-43/94, that is, IIRC, a grade-separated crossing with no connection. Since that almost-somewhat-not-quite-connected line that continues north from St. Francis does connect with the CP line and ultimately the Milwaukee station, it would be easy to build a couple hundred feet of new track to make that direct connection. Of course, that would require the train to cross two swing bridges in the Milwaukee harbor.

    Going back to the schedule, it’s going to be several trains. Logistics would demand that there be 4 trains on the tracks at any given time during the week, more if there is going to be a rush-hour burst.

  • Ridership – These numbers just don’t add up. At 14 round trips per weekday and 7 per weekend day and holiday, that’s about 8,650 one-way choo-choo trips. To get to the claimed annual ridership of 1.43 million, each train, each direction, each day would have to have over 165 people on it. That’s not happening.

    Even worse, they’re only projecting $3.8 million per year from fares. I know they’re planning on charging something less than $10 for a trip between Kenosha and Milwaukee, but if their inflated 1.43 million ridership can be believed, they’re getting about $2.65 out of each rider. Hell, that doesn’t even get you from Kenosha to Winthrop Harbor or downtown Chicago to Evanston ($3.05) much less between Kenosha and downtown Chicago ($6.40). Let’s assume they’ll go with an average fare of $5 (Milwaukee is closer and less attractive than Chicago, after all, and rolling with $10 would fly more like a depleted uranium balloon than the lead balloon that a $5 round-trip will prove).

    First, just for grins, let’s rerun the annual fare take at their inflated ridership at an average fare of $5. Even that only gives them $7.15 million in fare money. Now, let’s rerun the ridership numbers at the annual fare intake of $3.8 million. Oops, that drops the number of rides to 760,000. Divide that by 8,650 choo-choo trips and there’s about 88 people on each and every train in each and every direction each and every day. Guess what? That’s not happening either, especially since the Milwaukee-to-Sturtevant-to-Chicago Amtrak Hiawatha line carries a hair more than 500,000 rides per year, and that goes from Milwaukee to Chicago about as quickly as this commuter line would go from Milwaukee to Kenosha.

  • Recurring costs – Using the choo-choo lovers’ numbers, there would be an annual hole of $10.9 million to fill. Let’s get down to brass spikes and use the semi-realistic ridership numbers from above to start. Since essentially all of those rides are going to be round-trip, let’s knock the rides in half to 380,000 to reflect the actual number of people on the choo-choo in a year. That’s a taxpayer subsidy of $28.68 per round trip.

    As for paying for that $10.9 million, the dumbest idea is a TIF. First, that is designed to recoup the fixed costs of improvement with the increased taxes from the increased value of the property improved, not recurring costs. Second, I rather doubt there is more than $1 billion in improvements to be had from the introduction of a commuter rail line; hell, I doubt there is $1 in improvements that could be attributed to its introduction.

Grab ’em ankles.

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