Gov. Terry Branstad remains skeptical of the potential of a passenger rail line connecting Iowa City and the Quad Cities to Chicago and signaled Jan. 26 that he won’t include funding in the budget he unveils Thursday......
“I guess my feeling is that we have a very limited amount of resources available right now, so what we’re going to be able to do is pretty limited,” he (Branstad) said. “I don’t think it we have any money in the budget in the next biennium for this project.”
However, he didn’t rule out participating because the state’s $20 million commitment isn’t needed until nearer the 2015 target date for service to begin.
http://thegazette.com/2011/01/26/branstad-says-he%e2%80%99ll-pull-funds-for-iowa-city-train/
A freshman, not hardly. With 4 prior terms before returning from a sabbatical, the Governor of Iowa does not say never. No, just not now.
Until last summer, much of the quiet, steady progress on converting a century-old warehouse in downtown Moline into a 21st century train station has been on paper.
Years of work have gone into developing the Amtrak train station, now known as The Q multi-modal station. The public-private partnership of the city of Moline, MetroLINK, Renew Moline and hotel developer The Amin Group has worked its way through a mountain of paperwork.
http://qctimes.com/business/construction-advances-on-moline-train-station/article_662a4da8-68fe-5086-a2c6-41f72cea8b6f.html#utm_source=qctimes.com&utm_campaign=%2Femail-updates%2Fdaily-headlines%2F&utm_medium=email&utm_content=headline
The Cornbelt Rocket's terminal moves forward.
I would say, rather, that what moves forward is the terminal condition of the putative Corn Belt Rocket.
If Moline wants to build a station for a train that hasn't even left Chicago, or, given Illinois' financial shape, hasn't the prospect of doing so for years and years -- well, I wonder that it hasn't better use for its resources. (I realize the dollars doubtless originated with somebody else.)
MOLINE -- A delay in Gov. Bruce Rauner's review of the Chicago-to-Moline passenger rail line could cost Illinois $177 million in federal funding, according to U.S. Rep. Cheri Bustos, D-East Moline.
The federal funding is set to expire on July 1, and Rep. Bustos has reiterated a call she made in April for Gov. Rauner to release state money for the project. Under former Gov. Pat Quinn, about $78 million in state funding was approved for the project, Gov. Rauner has said he wants to review the project.
On Friday, Gov. Rauner's spokeswoman Catherine Kelly would say only that "the project remains under review."
http://www.qconline.com/news/local/bustos-warns-state-could-lose-million-for-q-c-passenger/article_0f0c81cf-4797-5007-874e-47199bcaf883.html
Paralysis by analysis. = Illinois
Victrola1 MOLINE -- A delay in Gov. Bruce Rauner's review of the Chicago-to-Moline passenger rail line could cost Illinois $177 million in federal funding, according to U.S. Rep. Cheri Bustos, D-East Moline. The federal funding is set to expire on July 1, and Rep. Bustos has reiterated a call she made in April for Gov. Rauner to release state money for the project. Under former Gov. Pat Quinn, about $78 million in state funding was approved for the project, Gov. Rauner has said he wants to review the project. On Friday, Gov. Rauner's spokeswoman Catherine Kelly would say only that "the project remains under review." http://www.qconline.com/news/local/bustos-warns-state-could-lose-million-for-q-c-passenger/article_0f0c81cf-4797-5007-874e-47199bcaf883.html
The political game of chicken under the guise of I'll scratch your back if you scratch mine and no one wants to make the first move.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
The inhabitant of the executive mansion continues to insist that the General Assembly pass his entire anti-labor "reform" package and will not even think about negotiating (my way or no way).
Trouble is in IL the Speaker of the House also is playing the My way or the highway game and we the people of IL are caught in the Middle. Madigan is refusing the Governors orders to call his Caucus into special session to work on the Budget even this month. That tell you anything.
The State of Illinois has told the Federal Railroad Administration that it is moving forward with the Chicago to Quad-Cities passenger rail project, an official said Tuesday.
The decision may well keep in place $177 million in federal funding that was awarded in 2010 for the connection, but that will be up to the Federal Railroad Administration, which had said the grant would expire June 30. Local officials have been lobbying Gov. Bruce Rauner to ask for an extension....
http://qctimes.com/news/local/illinois-commits-to-chicago-to-q-c-rail-project/article_5438dfc3-c6c5-5d55-a4f6-cb78ab179e69.html#utm_source=qctimes.com&utm_campaign=%2Femail-updates%2Fbreaking%2F&utm_medium=email&utm_content=1B8053D86B143F5DB4D6E94BD68AE047CA306583
Since there are union railroaders (and other union members) on these forums, I would hope no one approves of Rauner's union-busting attempt.
C&NW, CA&E, MILW, CGW and IC fan
Iowa City backers of the Cornbelt Rocket are probably happy with this funding. If the Cornbelt Rocket ever makes it to Moline, it still may not impress the State of Iowa to fund it running farther west.
schlimm Since there are union railroaders (and other union members) on these forums, I would hope no one approves of Rauner's union-busting attempt.
Il Duce is trying to bust all unions. One of his goals is to turn Illinois into a so-called "right to work" state. He also wants to gut workers' compensation laws. Apparently, he believes that the way to improve the business climate in this state is to insure that the workforce is cheap and docile.
dakotafred schlimm Since there are union railroaders (and other union members) on these forums, I would hope no one approves of Rauner's union-busting attempt. Heck, I'll rise to Schlimm's bait. A lot of us distinguish between labor unions in the private sector, born of necessity and with a long and honorable tradition, and those in the public sector whose members have battened on inattentive politicians playing with taxpayer dollars. It is the latter that governors like Rauner and Thompson, of Wisconsin, have taken on, to much abuse but with the heartfelt gratitude of most of their constituents. Long may they thrive.
Wrong. Rauner has proposed local "right to work" zones, that would allow workers to opt out of paying union dues, i.e., get a free ride. He would follow the Koch Bros., ALEC, Walker plan by eliminating the right of collective bargaining units in governmen to negotiate wages and benefits. If that isn't anti-labor, then nothing is. Your comments on union members in the public sector is born of ignorance and greed.
CORALVILLE — Bundled up outside a Megabus stop in Coralville before the Thanksgiving break, Samantha Miller learned the discount bus line will be dropping its route between Chicago and Omaha — and thus its service to Iowa — in the New Year.
http://www.thegazette.com/subject/news/business/a-ride-home-for-many-college-students-megabus-pulling-out-of-iowa-20161125
Megabus is pulling out of the market. Megabus says the route is not paying its way.
The arguement will be the bus can't make it. Why should taxpayers subsidize a passenger train serving the same route?
schlimmIowa City extension would be from Illinois, since 54% of the U of Iowa's freshmen are out of state, the majority from Illinois. I know the in-state Iowa students appreciates all that higher tuition money, because it allows them to have the lowest tuition of any Big 10 school!
Does that mean folks from illinois can't hack UW academic standards? <lol> :)
schlimmrong. Rauner has proposed local "right to work" zones, that would allow workers to opt out of paying union dues, i.e., get a free ride. He would follow the Koch Bros., ALEC, Walker plan by eliminating the right of collective bargaining units in governmen to negotiate wages and benefits. If that isn't anti-labor, then nothing is. Your comments on union members in the public sector is born of ignorance and greed.
Correction:
Walker did not eliminate the right of collective bargaining he limited it to wages / salary only. So collective bargaining still exists for Wisconsin State Employees.
Collective bargaining was being massively abused on the Benefits Side and it is why you saw several state unions diversify and start to offer their own insurance lines and insist they be in the contract as the insurer It was all out theft from the State Treasury (taxpayers), in my opinion. I am sure given the politics in Illinois that kind of behavior still gets a wink and a nod from the politicians in that state, which is OK. We each get to vote in the environment we want to live.
Eliminating union graft is not Union busting in my book.....
In Kaukauna, school officials put in place new policies they estimate will turn a $400,000 deficit into a $1.5 million surplus. In April 2011, the union had offered healthcare and pension concessions as well as a wage freeze, which it projected would save $1.8 million, but the offer was rejected by the school board. "The monetary part of it is not the entire issue", said board President Todd Arnoldussen. "It was in the collective bargaining agreement that we could only negotiate with them", said Arnoldussen referring to the past, when Kaukauna's agreement with the teachers union required the school district to purchase health insurance coverage from WEA Trust – a company created by the Wisconsin teachers union. This year, the trust told Kaukauna that it would face a significant increase in premiums. According to the conservative, Virginia-based Washington Examiner, with the collective bargaining agreement gone, the school district is free to shop around for coverage. Kaukauna can reduce the size of its classes – from 31 students to 26 students in high school and from 26 students to 23 students in elementary school. In addition, there will be more teacher time for one-on-one sessions with troubled students. The money saved will be used to hire a few more teachers and institute merit pay.
The city of Milwaukee projects it will save at least $25 million a year and possibly as much as $36 million in 2012 from health care benefit changes due to not having to negotiate with unions and their related insurance companies. This is offset by about $14 million in cuts in state aid. This contrasts with Mayor Tom Barrett's initial comments in March, after the Walker administration and the nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau released figures on the extent of the aid cuts in the state budget. Regarding Milwaukee Public Schools, the Thomas B. Fordham Institute completed a study in 2012 of the effect on the school district due to the implementation of Act 10 and found that the school system will save $101.1 million by 2020.
The results have been mixed for school districts that had long-term labor contracts in place, how much they already were charging employees for health insurance, their enrollment trends, their fiscal situation, and local political factors. Act 10 allowed for the possibility for districts to re-open union contracts to take advantage of the tools available in the act if the union membership chose to do so up to three months after the bill was signed into law.
Executives are reducing the Megabus Chicago operation due, in part, to a “challenging economy” that has low fuel prices increasing vehicle and airline competition.
It is doubtful the Iowa Legislature will soon be swayed to subsidize rail passenger service from Moline to Iowa City and beyond.
What is interesting is the map at the bottom of the news article. Megabus did not list serving the Quad Cities, not even at a truck stop along I-80.
Why?
Reading the article highlights how most people do not understand how much things really cost. A population of roughly 6,400 University of Iowa students from Illinois is certainly not enough to fill enough seats daily to not only cover incremental route costs but also ongoing vehicle maintenance and other overhead costs. I am actually amazed that they ran it as long as they did. And this is an operation that does not have to pay for its own right of way, either.
Here is how bad the local Teachers Unions are near me. The State of IL put a local school district on the Fininical Difficulty watch list meaning the Board of Education had to submit a budget cutting plan to the State in order to get its budget approved to open the school. Well one of the things on the cutting room floor was the Self Insured teachers Healthcare Insurance. They sent it out for bids to take it back to private run. Well they got the bids back in and they are going to save 800 grand per year. They only need to cut 400 grand a year to make the States mandates in budget Cuts.
Guess who gave these benefits to the teachers Retired Teachers and Superintendents. One of them even tried to become a State Senator this year and got hammered over how she ran 2 districts into the ground.
Oh yeah gotta love State Retriees here in IL that have Protected Pensions that can never be reduced. Their screaming bloody murder that the state is broke but heaven help the taxpayers that have to cover the shortfall in the obligations for their pensions. Lets just say IL owes close to 140 Billion in pension debt alone. Yeah we are that screwed. Yet all we hear from Chicago is higher taxes and more regulations that run businesses out of this state. My boss this year said if somethings do not change with the business enviroment in Springfield he will sell out.
The student patronage is concentrated on a few days a year, and if memory serves from my own University of Iowa days 50+ years ago, more trouble than it was worth. The Rock Island dutifully expanded its consists to accomodate the crowds, and its reward was hundreds of cheap ($7.14?) fares to Chicago that could have barely covered the cleanup bill.
I'm not being holy; I was one of the worst offenders. But seriously: Who needs that kind of business? Not Megabus, evidently.
Shadow the Cats ownerHere is how bad the local Teachers Unions are near me. The State of IL put a local school district on the Fininical Difficulty watch list meaning the Board of Education had to submit a budget cutting plan to the State in order to get its budget approved to open the school. Well one of the things on the cutting room floor was the Self Insured teachers Healthcare Insurance. They sent it out for bids to take it back to private run. Well they got the bids back in and they are going to save 800 grand per year. They only need to cut 400 grand a year to make the States mandates in budget Cuts. Guess who gave these benefits to the teachers Retired Teachers and Superintendents. One of them even tried to become a State Senator this year and got hammered over how she ran 2 districts into the ground. Oh yeah gotta love State Retriees here in IL that have Protected Pensions that can never be reduced. Their screaming bloody murder that the state is broke but heaven help the taxpayers that have to cover the shortfall in the obligations for their pensions. Lets just say IL owes close to 140 Billion in pension debt alone. Yeah we are that screwed. Yet all we hear from Chicago is higher taxes and more regulations that run businesses out of this state. My boss this year said if somethings do not change with the business enviroment in Springfield he will sell out.
You buy groceries etc. when your pension gets reduced through no fault of yours. Yea rape the pension funds - those that use them are all over the hill anyways, they don't count and they'll die before we can hear them scream. [/sarcasm]
I am certain the state legislators have fully feathered their own nests and could care less about any one or any thing else. Crap on the legislators desks, not those living on pensions.
Balt a few years ago the State legislature passed SB1 to reform the pension systems. Before the governors signature was dry on the signature on it ASCME council 31 had gone into court and sued to stop it from going into effect. This same union right last year spent millions of dollars trying to bypass our new governor in labor talks. Why because he wants them to WORK instead of just show up. The horrors of horrors no OT til after 40 hours in a week instead of 37.5 No step raises no automatic promotions and get this requiring supervisor approval for all Union Work done on the Taxpayers Time.
ASMCE spent 5 million dollars trying to pass a bill that would freeze him out of labor talks. Instead what they got now is his Last Contract IMPOSED by the State Labor Board. Savings to the people like me close to 3 Billion dollars in 3 years.
My understanding is that tuition at Iowa for out of state students is over $41,000 annually -- about double the in state rate and $10,000 more than the University of Illinois charges for in state. I'd suggest that out of state students at Iowa taken as a whole are from economically upscale families. That means they have more transportation options available than the students at Champaign. Combine that with whatever transportation demand exists being concentrated in just a few days a year, and to me it indicates service to Iowa City would have to be heavily reliant upon taxpayer support.
The yet to reach Moline Cornbelt Rocket's eventual goal is to serve Iowa City, Des Moines and Omaha. If and when the Cornbelt Rocket runs from Moline, it will be interesting to see what the ridership is.
The route to Chicago Megabus is dropping went west of Iowa City to Des Moines and Omaha. Those metropolitan areas in addition were not generating sufficent traffic.
For the foreseeable future, the Cornbelt Rocket will remain the Quad City Rocket. Unlike Illinois, the State of Iowa will remain uninterested in subsidizing the service.
Ancient history dept. The oldest memory in my brain is being 3 years old on an eastbound Rock Island train at Davenport. It's a very happy memory, too, hope to never lose it.
http://ir.uiowa.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=11122&context=annals-of-iowa
Shadow the Cats owner Here is how bad the local Teachers Unions are near me. The State of IL put a local school district on the Fininical Difficulty watch list meaning the Board of Education had to submit a budget cutting plan to the State in order to get its budget approved to open the school. Well one of the things on the cutting room floor was the Self Insured teachers Healthcare Insurance. They sent it out for bids to take it back to private run. Well they got the bids back in and they are going to save 800 grand per year. They only need to cut 400 grand a year to make the States mandates in budget Cuts. Guess who gave these benefits to the teachers Retired Teachers and Superintendents. One of them even tried to become a State Senator this year and got hammered over how she ran 2 districts into the ground. Oh yeah gotta love State Retriees here in IL that have Protected Pensions that can never be reduced. Their screaming bloody murder that the state is broke but heaven help the taxpayers that have to cover the shortfall in the obligations for their pensions. Lets just say IL owes close to 140 Billion in pension debt alone. Yeah we are that screwed. Yet all we hear from Chicago is higher taxes and more regulations that run businesses out of this state. My boss this year said if somethings do not change with the business enviroment in Springfield he will sell out.
It's a big reason why EMD LaGrange is now Electro-Motive Fort Worth. They stated for the press it was because the largest client was BNSF but most of us know the financial reason had to do with taxes and cost of living.
In Wisconsin's case the concern was rapidly expanding benefits vs rising pay and salary and the Unions were setting up insurance companies and making it mandatory their specific plan be used via collective bargaining. Too much graft there for Wisconsin Taxpayers to swallow. The State Employee right to collective bargaining is in the State Constitution and remains there unamended but it is restricted to pay only. It was extended to benefits via legislation by Democratic Governor Pat Lucy in the 1970's and has been increasingly abused since then........so the extension to include benefits was revoked. The Left just went ape crazy over the change because a LOT of those same Labor unions were contributing heavily to their campaigns (which you could make a case against as well being a conflict of interest). However, I am not aware after the laws that passed any union being busted financially or going broke. In fact they are all still there attempting repeatedly to overturn the legislation at every chance they get......which is also sad.
kgbw49 Reading the article highlights how most people do not understand how much things really cost. A population of roughly 6,400 University of Iowa students from Illinois is certainly not enough to fill enough seats daily to not only cover incremental route costs but also ongoing vehicle maintenance and other overhead costs. I am actually amazed that they ran it as long as they did. And this is an operation that does not have to pay for its own right of way, either.
I think if I were Amtrak I would look at Iowa City as a combined market of Iowa City and Cedar Rapids instead of just looking at Iowa City in isolation.
Just me though.
CMStPnP Shadow the Cats owner Here is how bad the local Teachers Unions are near me. The State of IL put a local school district on the Fininical Difficulty watch list meaning the Board of Education had to submit a budget cutting plan to the State in order to get its budget approved to open the school. Well one of the things on the cutting room floor was the Self Insured teachers Healthcare Insurance. They sent it out for bids to take it back to private run. Well they got the bids back in and they are going to save 800 grand per year. They only need to cut 400 grand a year to make the States mandates in budget Cuts. Guess who gave these benefits to the teachers Retired Teachers and Superintendents. One of them even tried to become a State Senator this year and got hammered over how she ran 2 districts into the ground. Oh yeah gotta love State Retriees here in IL that have Protected Pensions that can never be reduced. Their screaming bloody murder that the state is broke but heaven help the taxpayers that have to cover the shortfall in the obligations for their pensions. Lets just say IL owes close to 140 Billion in pension debt alone. Yeah we are that screwed. Yet all we hear from Chicago is higher taxes and more regulations that run businesses out of this state. My boss this year said if somethings do not change with the business enviroment in Springfield he will sell out. It's a big reason why EMD LaGrange is now Electro-Motive Fort Worth. They stated for the press it was because the largest client was BNSF but most of us know the financial reason had to do with taxes and cost of living. In Wisconsin's case the concern was rapidly expanding benefits vs rising pay and salary and the Unions were setting up insurance companies and making it mandatory their specific plan be used via collective bargaining. Too much graft there for Wisconsin Taxpayers to swallow. The State Employee right to collective bargaining is in the State Constitution and remains there unamended but it is restricted to pay only. It was extended to benefits via legislation by Democratic Governor Pat Lucy in the 1970's and has been increasingly abused since then........so the extension to include benefits was revoked. The Left just went ape crazy over the change because a LOT of those same Labor unions were contributing heavily to their campaigns (which you could make a case against as well being a conflict of interest). However, I am not aware after the laws that passed any union being busted financially or going broke. In fact they are all still there attempting repeatedly to overturn the legislation at every chance they get......which is also sad.
Gotta bust those unions, gotta keep that workforce cheap and docile.
Our community is FREE to join. To participate you must either login or register for an account.