MONROE - Three Green County projects are among the nearly 1,800 included in an economic stimulus wish list Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle has presented to President-elect Barack Obama's transition team.
Doyle and two other governors were on Capitol Hill on Thursday to plead with lawmakers for relief from crushing state fiscal woes caused by a huge slump in revenues as the recession deepens.
Obama's transition team and Capitol Hill Democrats are beginning to work on an economic recovery bill in the $500 billion range that Obama wants to sign shortly after taking office. The bill presumably would include federal money for state and local infrastructure projects.
The president-elect said that a major infrastructure plan will provide an economic boost to communities across the nation, as well as create jobs. Obama referred to the projects, including roads, highways and miscellaneous state projects, as "shovel-ready projects," indicating that Federal and state government should be ready to move on them next year.
On Wednesday, Doyle presented to Obama chief of staff Rahm Emanuel a list of projects that could be aided by a federal infusion of money. The Times requested a copy of the list Thursday.
Doyle identified more than $3.8 billion in projects that could be started within four months. More than $10 billion is identified for long-term projects, some of which haven't gotten any further than the drawing board.
Projects are broken into categories including transportation, education, "green" and energy-related, Great Lakes, health care and other. The transportation projects are the most expensive, totaling more than $7.5 billion.
Among the projects the governor listed is an 18-mile stretch of transmission line between the substation in Brodhead and the south Monroe substation.
The line already exists, but the project will bring the transmission line from 69 kilovolts up to 138 kilovolts. An application for the rebuild was submitted May 20 by the American Transmission Company to the Public Service Commission.
Another application on the project from Wisconsin Power and Light Company (WPL) and American Transmission Company LLC (ATC) was submitted Oct. 23 for approval of an affiliated interest arrangement.
The long-term project is listed at a cost of $12.3 million.
From the Freight Rail Project Program (FRPP Grant Program Projects), as of April 11, 2008, is a rehabilitation project for rail, ties, ballast, crossings, signal and bridges, for 35.2 miles from Janesville to Monroe. The project is listed at an estimated cost of $22.88 million, with 80 percent, or more than $18 million, paid by the Wisconsin Department of Transportation.
Under the same program, a total reinstallation project is listed for 45 miles from Monroe to Mineral Point at a total cost of $45 million, with WDOT's 80 percent at $36 million.
Other state projects in the governor's list include constructing passenger rail lines connecting major cities in the state and Chicago, converting state power plants from coal to other fuel sources, and addressing deferred maintenance on state buildings.
Other projects already have begun.
They include the Madison-Milwaukee-Chicago rail projects, reconstructing Interstate 94 between Milwaukee and the Illinois state line, repairing bridges, and building a commuter rail between Kenosha, Racine and Milwaukee.
Education projects include building new schools, adding labs, offices and dormitories across the University of Wisconsin System and addressing deferred maintenance projects on the campuses. Those total nearly $1.9 billion.
In the Great Lakes category, at a cost of about $1.1 billion, Doyle said the money could go toward clean water projects, addressing water quality and cleaning up the Fox River.
The "green" and energy projects include converting a coal power plant on the UW-Madison campus to biofuels and come to about $2.1 billion.
The $800 million in health care projects include bolstering the use of electronic medical records and building a second tower at the UW medical research facility. Among $100 million in other projects are addressing deferred maintenance on state buildings and repairing dams.
Obama challenged governors last week to come up with a list of infrastructure projects that could start immediately and benefit from federal aid. Governors want Congress to provide an economic stimulus package to help them dig out of massive budget shortfalls.
One proposal being discussed would send the states $500 billion over two years.
Doyle, along with New Jersey Gov. John Corzine and Vermont Gov. Jim Douglas, testified Thursday before the House Appropriations Committee about problems facing the states.
Doyle told lawmakers that he's facing a $5.4 billion, 17 percent budget gap in his upcoming fiscal plan. That's on top of a 10 percent cut already made to Wisconsin's state work force.
Corzine says governors could use up to $100 billion to help with day-to-day operating costs, in addition to a recent $40 billion request over two years to help fund the Medicaid program for the poor and disabled and up to $136 billion for infrastructure projects like road and bridge repair.
Without help, the governors said, the cuts to state services and infrastructure projects would take money out of the economy, deepening the recession.
"We will be forced to cut the very tools and services that people depend on to pull them out of recession," Doyle said.
Upon returning to Wisconsin, Doyle told reporters the congressional committee appeared "very receptive" to the governors' comments, and understood why the pleas were necessary.
"Members of Congress are in their districts all the time. They know what's going on out there," Doyle said. "They know the people they represent are hurting."
Even so, Doyle said he would prepare the upcoming budget under the assumption that no federal aid was forthcoming.
"I'm not relying on any of it," he said. "We'll rely on it if it's there."
House Appropriations Chairman David Obey, D-Wis., warned that even if a big economic stimulus bill becomes law soon, a leading economist told House Democrats recently that the economy is in such bad shape that 9 percent unemployment can't be avoided. The economist was Mark Zandi of Moody's Economy.com.
- The Associated Press contributed to this story.
Doyle and two other governors were on Capitol Hill on Thursday to plead with lawmakers for relief from crushing state fiscal woes caused by a huge slump in revenues as the recession deepens.
Obama's transition team and Capitol Hill Democrats are beginning to work on an economic recovery bill in the $500 billion range that Obama wants to sign shortly after taking office. The bill presumably would include federal money for state and local infrastructure projects.
The president-elect said that a major infrastructure plan will provide an economic boost to communities across the nation, as well as create jobs. Obama referred to the projects, including roads, highways and miscellaneous state projects, as "shovel-ready projects," indicating that Federal and state government should be ready to move on them next year.
On Wednesday, Doyle presented to Obama chief of staff Rahm Emanuel a list of projects that could be aided by a federal infusion of money. The Times requested a copy of the list Thursday.
Doyle identified more than $3.8 billion in projects that could be started within four months. More than $10 billion is identified for long-term projects, some of which haven't gotten any further than the drawing board.
Projects are broken into categories including transportation, education, "green" and energy-related, Great Lakes, health care and other. The transportation projects are the most expensive, totaling more than $7.5 billion.
Among the projects the governor listed is an 18-mile stretch of transmission line between the substation in Brodhead and the south Monroe substation.
The line already exists, but the project will bring the transmission line from 69 kilovolts up to 138 kilovolts. An application for the rebuild was submitted May 20 by the American Transmission Company to the Public Service Commission.
Another application on the project from Wisconsin Power and Light Company (WPL) and American Transmission Company LLC (ATC) was submitted Oct. 23 for approval of an affiliated interest arrangement.
The long-term project is listed at a cost of $12.3 million.
From the Freight Rail Project Program (FRPP Grant Program Projects), as of April 11, 2008, is a rehabilitation project for rail, ties, ballast, crossings, signal and bridges, for 35.2 miles from Janesville to Monroe. The project is listed at an estimated cost of $22.88 million, with 80 percent, or more than $18 million, paid by the Wisconsin Department of Transportation.
Under the same program, a total reinstallation project is listed for 45 miles from Monroe to Mineral Point at a total cost of $45 million, with WDOT's 80 percent at $36 million.
Other state projects in the governor's list include constructing passenger rail lines connecting major cities in the state and Chicago, converting state power plants from coal to other fuel sources, and addressing deferred maintenance on state buildings.
Other projects already have begun.
They include the Madison-Milwaukee-Chicago rail projects, reconstructing Interstate 94 between Milwaukee and the Illinois state line, repairing bridges, and building a commuter rail between Kenosha, Racine and Milwaukee.
Education projects include building new schools, adding labs, offices and dormitories across the University of Wisconsin System and addressing deferred maintenance projects on the campuses. Those total nearly $1.9 billion.
In the Great Lakes category, at a cost of about $1.1 billion, Doyle said the money could go toward clean water projects, addressing water quality and cleaning up the Fox River.
The "green" and energy projects include converting a coal power plant on the UW-Madison campus to biofuels and come to about $2.1 billion.
The $800 million in health care projects include bolstering the use of electronic medical records and building a second tower at the UW medical research facility. Among $100 million in other projects are addressing deferred maintenance on state buildings and repairing dams.
Obama challenged governors last week to come up with a list of infrastructure projects that could start immediately and benefit from federal aid. Governors want Congress to provide an economic stimulus package to help them dig out of massive budget shortfalls.
One proposal being discussed would send the states $500 billion over two years.
Doyle, along with New Jersey Gov. John Corzine and Vermont Gov. Jim Douglas, testified Thursday before the House Appropriations Committee about problems facing the states.
Doyle told lawmakers that he's facing a $5.4 billion, 17 percent budget gap in his upcoming fiscal plan. That's on top of a 10 percent cut already made to Wisconsin's state work force.
Corzine says governors could use up to $100 billion to help with day-to-day operating costs, in addition to a recent $40 billion request over two years to help fund the Medicaid program for the poor and disabled and up to $136 billion for infrastructure projects like road and bridge repair.
Without help, the governors said, the cuts to state services and infrastructure projects would take money out of the economy, deepening the recession.
"We will be forced to cut the very tools and services that people depend on to pull them out of recession," Doyle said.
Upon returning to Wisconsin, Doyle told reporters the congressional committee appeared "very receptive" to the governors' comments, and understood why the pleas were necessary.
"Members of Congress are in their districts all the time. They know what's going on out there," Doyle said. "They know the people they represent are hurting."
Even so, Doyle said he would prepare the upcoming budget under the assumption that no federal aid was forthcoming.
"I'm not relying on any of it," he said. "We'll rely on it if it's there."
House Appropriations Chairman David Obey, D-Wis., warned that even if a big economic stimulus bill becomes law soon, a leading economist told House Democrats recently that the economy is in such bad shape that 9 percent unemployment can't be avoided. The economist was Mark Zandi of Moody's Economy.com.
- The Associated Press contributed to this story.