Mass Transit--What to do?

Being from Wisconsin, I understand the politics behind transportation issues in this country. A bi-partisan effort has insisted that the government sponsor creating a network of transportation rail lines similar to Europe and part of the stimulas program was allocated to Wisconsin for this project. Governor Scott Walker effectively rejected this proposal and returned the stimulas funds. Hawaii is also considering building a rail line. Four years ago California issued 10 billion dollars in bonds to build over 800 miles of high speed rail. According to an article found here the LA Times, "...the cost of which is now pegged at $68 billion..." Despite all of this negative publicity, the public still wants a more reliable national transportation system according to a new poll by the National Research Defense Council, showing that a majority of Americans want individual states to increase spending on this system. "Americans over-estimate what their state spends on public transportation, estimating that it is an average of 16 percent of their state’s transportation budget – and still they would like that amount nearly doubled, calling for their state to spend an average of 28 percent on public transportation (note: The average percentage of transportation money – state plus federal – spent on transit over the past three years was 6.55 percent per state)."

Raising the amount a state spends on transportation to 28% would drastically change the budgets for each state, pulling much needed funds from every sector in order to compensate the transportation. Indiana, named "Crossroads of America," has a total budget for 2012 of 54.5 billion dollars, 3.5 billion was spent on transportation according to governmentspending.com-on par with the national average. Raising the spending to 28% would place transportation to the second highest priority, just shy of education. Citizens should think critically about government spending and priorities when answering poll questions, and realizing the implications of raising areas of spending.