Milwaukee's Trolley and Levy Limits

Let's talk about Milwaukee's Boondoggle Trolley, and why it is important to keep levy limits.

When I talk to neighbors of mine in Washington County about Milwaukee's trolley, I don't have any neighbors telling me that we should be helping Milwaukee to pay for this vital project (and I use the term vital project satirically).  Instead, the opinions I hear tend to fall along these lines

• If Milwaukee wants to be stupid with their money and build a useless trolley, that's their right, but we shouldn't pay for it.
• Building a trolley in 2018 is such a stupid idea, that it should be illegal.  Milwaukee residents shouldn't have to pay for it.

My opinion aligns with the second opinion.  Building Trolley's in 2018 is moronic.
I recall hearing Belling contrast all of the negatives of the trolley with all of the positives of Uber.  Interestingly, my own person experiences bear proof to that.  To draw the contrast in my own experiences:

Kenosha's Trolley. 

I was in Kenosha several years ago, on a cold winter day, visiting their museum with my kids. As we pulled up, I saw a trolley pulling away from a nearby trolley stop. I didn't know Kenosha had a trolley stop, but thought "That might be something fun for the kids." My kids were around 6-8 years old at the time. I decided that when we were done in the museum, we'd try to catch the trolley.

An hour or 2 later, we were leaving the museum, and I began looking for the trolley. It was nowhere in sight. I took the kids to the car, where we waiting for 5 minutes, freezing, while watching for the trolley. It was still nowhere to be seen. I took the kids back inside, and from the giftshop we watched out the window looking for it, but after another 10 minutes it was still nowhere in sight. I finally decided to take the kids back to the car and give it a couple more minutes. Then we gave up, and as we drove away.

My point is simple---the trolley was so inconvenient, we gave up and left despite wanting to ride it.

Uber. 

I was in Buffalo last fall with a few coworkers. We decided to go out for dinner, and picked a place a few miles away. The hotel shuttle wouldn't be back for 20 minutes thought. One of my coworkers was a frequent Uber user. She pulled up the app and said "There's someone 3 minutes away who can drive us there." We all decided to give this strange Uber thing a try. Stunningly, 3 minutes later, a guy walks into the hotel, sees my coworker, recognizes her from her picture in the app, and introduces himself as our driver. We walk out to the car, and reach our destination 4 miles away in almost no time.  I was stunned by how convenient it was.

Again my point is simple---Uber was more convenient than the hotel shuttle when we were in the hotel lobby.

In contrasting Uber (which started in 2009) to trolleys (which began as horse-drawn trolleys in 1820 and switched to electric trolleys in the 1890s), Uber is much more flexible, convenient, and adaptable.  It is moronic to be rebuilding trolley lines in the 21st century.

Levy Limits

Levy Limits exist to protect taxpayers from irresponsible government officials.  In Milwaukee, the Mayor complains about levy limits, and how he can't provide the basic services that are needed.  At the same time, while the 1st part of the trolley isn't even operating yet, he is already planning 3 expensive extensions to Milwaukee's trolley system.  If you don't believe me, read about it on the trolley's website: themilwaukeestreetcar.com.  He's not even waiting to see if people ride the trolley before working to expand it.

The planned expansions are:

1. The Forth Street Expansion, which would run from the Amtrack station up 4th street to the new Bucks Arena.
2. Walker's Point Expansion, which would extend the trolley south to Greenfield Avenue.
3. The Bronzeville Expansion, which would go from the bucks arena up to North Avenue.

If Washington County was released from levy limits, we would still be lowering our taxes.  If Milwaukee is released from levy limits, they'd go on a massive spending spree, building all of these trolley lines and ballooning tax bills.  Our state is one of the most heavily taxed states, and we need to bring that under control.