(The Associated Press circulated the following article on June 19.)
MADISON, Wis. — Wisconsin Transportation Secretary Frank Busalacchi has asked state lawmakers to restore funds for an Amtrak train line between Milwaukee and Chicago after they were slashed in budget deliberations by the Legislature’s finance committee.
The Hiawatha line’s running costs are jointly subsidized by Wisconsin, Illinois and the federal government, but Illinois froze its share of the payments for the year that ends this month despite cost increases.
Gov. Jim Doyle proposed that Wisconsin boost its funding in response, but the state’s Republican-controlled finance committee pared it back on its final day of deliberations June 10.
“It’s unfortunate the Joint Finance Committee rejected Gov. Jim Doyle’s proposal to provide the state funding needed to continue the Hiawatha service at this year’s record-setting level,” Busalacchi told the Legislature on Friday.
The stripped-down budget is likely to mean changes in services or rate increases, he said.
Sierra Club chair Chris Nehrbass said the committee’s budget would leave the Amtrak contract for the line short $572,700 for fiscal 2006 and short $1.7 million the next year.
An amendment by Rep. Jeff Stone (R-Greendale) was introduced to try to force Illinois to pay a greater share of the contract, even though the Illinois budget has already been adopted.
“Rep. Stone has put in jeopardy the continuation of Hiawatha train service,” Nehrbass said.
The cuts came as the Hiawatha, spurred in part by a new station at the Milwaukee Airport, set another record for passengers in the month of May, the sixth consecutive month the rail line has set new highs for the number of riders.
There were 43,598 passengers in May, up 18 percent from last year. At the end of May a total of 205,187 passengers had ridden Hiawatha trains this year, up more than 15 percent over a year ago.
The Hiawatha has seven round trips daily between Milwaukee and Chicago.