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| VINEHOUT SAYS SHE'D WORK TO GET BACK FEDERAL FUNDS REJECTED BY WALKER |
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WPR News - Vinehout says she'd work to get back federal funds rejected by Walker
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Wednesday April 18, 2012
by Shawn Johnson
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(STATE CAPITOL) A Democratic candidate for governor says that if elected she would work to restore federal funding Gov. Scott Walker turned away. That includes funding for a high speed rail line connecting Madison, Milwaukee and Chicago.
In addition to federal money for rail, Alma state Sen. Kathleen Vinehout says she'd work to get back federal funding the governor rejected for broadband expansion and for establishing a state health insurance exchange. Walker's decision on federal rail funding was by far the most controversial of those moves. The governor campaigned on stopping the rail line, but insisted he'd be able to use the money for state road projects instead. The federal government rejected that idea and gave the money to other states' rail projects.
Vinehout says the governor's moves were short-sighted, "The governor has burned a lot of bridges. He's burned bridges on the other side of the aisle. He's burned bridges with the federal government back. We need to build those bridges back."
Getting federal funding back would be much easier said than done. But Vinehout says with or without the funding, she'd still move ahead with a Wisconsin health exchange that lets consumers see an apples-to-apples comparison of insurance companies.
Vinehout faces Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, former Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk and Secretary of State Doug La Follette in the May 8th Democratic primary for governor.
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