Last night the legislature enacted a state stimulus bill which will close a corporate tax loophole restoring integrity to our tax code and leveling the playing field among businesses.

The transportation portion of the American Recovery and Reinvestment bill, as passed today in the House, includes $12 billion in much-needed funding to modernize and expand public transportation networks across the country.

A new study of the Wisconsin Department of Transportation (DOT) wish list, recently submitted to Congress for funding under a new economic recovery package, suggests that Wisconsin’s current project list both prioritizes projects that can help Wisconsin to address our biggest transportation problems, but also undermines efforts to repair and modernize our deteriorating infrastructure and reduce U.S. dependence on oil.

A nationwide network of high speed bullet trains could soon be a reality thanks to bipartisan legislation introduced today by Senators Kerry (D-MA), Specter (R-PA) and at least a dozen other senators from both parties. The legislation provides two necessary components for such a system: dedicated funding and federal coordination. The legislation includes financing for federally-designated rail corridors, one of which is the Chicago hub corridor -- a main segment of the Chicago corridor would run from Chicago to Minneapolis by way of Milwaukee and Madison. Senator Kohl (WI) is supportive of high-speed rail but was not a co-sponsor of this bill.

Today, on the heels of the Wall Street bailout and hours before the final presidential debate, Mayor Dave Cieslewicz and community leaders joined together to call on the next President and Congress to strengthen our local and national economies by building a 21st Century transportation system.

Today the House of Representatives listened to concerned Main Street voters and taxpayers and defeated a defective Wall Street bailout. The flawed $700 billion package requested by the Bush administration had been fast-tracked to address the still-real threat of a financial markets meltdown. Any chance the bill would be worth passing fell apart when the administration blocked the addition of real protections for homeowners and taxpayers and cynically insisting on provisions that made the bailout more like ice cream for the financial industry than tough medicine. That sweetness for Wall Street, and bitter pills and big tax bills for Main Street, doomed the bill in the House.

Without sufficient alternatives to driving, American families spent their entire economic stimulus check on high-priced gas. According to new analysis from the Wisconsin Public Interest Research Group, since President Bush signed the tax rebates into law on February 13th, the average household spent over $1500 filling their tanks.

Efforts to promote investment in public transportation in Wisconsin received a boost as civic leaders held an event in Madison highlighting a major new report on oil savings and other benefits from public transportation across the country.