The Giant Sucking Sound, CMCCL and "Cooperation"

That sucking sound you hear is faint, for the present.

But Milwaukee, currently the recipient of 30% of State taxpayers' largesse while having only 10% of the State's residents, is now angling for more.

Of course, we use "largesse" advisedly. The State's method of spending begins with taking money at the point of a gun, then spending it where State politicians get votes. Both the City and the County of Milwaukee have been very big players in voting Democrats into office.

You can figure this out, no?

At any rate, Milwaukee County's bus system is in deep doodoo. Scott Walker, no fool, would like to dump the bus system.

And the target for that "dump" will include Washington, Ozaukee, Waukesha, Racine, Kenosha, and Milwaukee Counties.

Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker has asked other top officials to meet to discuss whether the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Transit Authority should be restructured to oversee public buses as well as commuter trains. Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett said he will join the talks, to which Walker already had invited Waukesha County Executive Dan Vrakas, Waukesha Mayor Larry Nelson, Racine Mayor Gary Becker and Kenosha Mayor John Antaramian.

Barrett invited himself. He could smell the money and he's not stupid, either.

Setting up a regional transit system involves politically sensitive decisions on how to run it and how to pay for it. Also looming over the debate are the future of the financially troubled Milwaukee County Transit System; rival plans to spend $91.5 million in long-idle federal transit aid on express buses or streetcars; and efforts to start the KRM Commuter Link, a rail line connecting Milwaukee, the southern suburbs, Racine and Kenosha.

KRM should really be called the CMCCL--"Chicago to Milwaukee Club Car Line." It's put together for the benefit of members of the Milwaukee and Chicago Athletic Clubs who desperately need taxpayer subsidization of their travels.

Of course, the Old Plan will be discussed:

In the early 1990s, the state set up a temporary regional transit authority to plan for a permanent body. The group recommended a seven-county agency to take over not only public transit but also highways and carpooling, funded by a 0.4% local sales tax and a 5-cent-a-gallon local gas tax.

See anything in that 'graf which mentions "elected body"? I didn't think so.

All of the rhetoric will be keyed off the term "cooperative."

All of the money will be taken from "cooperative" Wisconsin taxpayers.

Most people "cooperate" with Armed Thieves, right?