Commuter rail gets a boost from failure

I spent much of Wednesday trying to track down the status of funding for the proposed commuter rail expansion from Kenosha to Milwaukee. I'll be writing about this more tomorrow, but tonight here's some interesting information from Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker.

I'd heard earlier in the day that Walker talked about KRM funding during a "Mayor's Roundtable" hosted by Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett (read here for an interesting take on the event). Walker reportedly said that KRM funding had a better chance of passing now that leaders from Racine, Milwaukee and Waukesha counties gave up on a sales tax increase to create a regional transportation system. Negotiations to create the system broke down last week, and that could be to KRM's benefit, according to Walker. Or so I was told.

Later in the day, Walker himself confirmed his comments in an e-mail. Here's what he wrote:

Per your question, I said this morning that one of the unusual side effects of there not being an agreement on a funding source for mass transit in the region at this time is that it might make passage of the funding for KRM more likely. Some on the current RTA were concerned that lawmakers would not approve the KRM plan while local leaders were discussing the larger issue of transit in the region. Since the debate over sales tax has brought that to a halt, it removes a potential barrier to the KRM plan.

KRM still faces some big hurdles in getting approved by the conference committee negotiating the state budget. One big hurdle is State Rep. Robin Vos, R-Caledonia, who isn't opposed to KRM, but isn't sold on the proposed funding mechanism. More on that tomorrow, along with takes from State Sen. John Lehman, D-Racine, and State Rep. Cory Mason, D-Racine, who are both strong proponents of the commuter rail expansion.