NEWS
Amid budget crisis, DOT hits jam
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by Courtney Johnson
Thursday, December 14, 2006
The Wisconsin Department of Transportation announced Tuesday its intention to delay 50 highway projects around the state as a result of a large budget shortfall. The delayed projects include lane expansions, highway repairs and maintenance.
The Transportation Development Association, a nonpartisan transportation advocacy group, estimates the budget shortfall to be roughly $88 million.
Bob Cook, executive director of the TDA, testified before the state Legislature's Road to the Future Committee Wednesday to suggest ways to lessen the budget gap.
"Gas taxes and vehicle registration fees will work in the short term, but in the long term, as cars become more fuel efficient and perhaps we get an alternative means of fueling vehicles … that is going to stop being a good surrogate for system use," he said.
Cook added that such measures as open-road tolling or billing drivers per mile driven might be necessary to fix the DOT's budget problem. The Road to the Future Committee, created in March 2006, will help address these funding issues after Gov. Jim Doyle proposes his budget next year.
But some legislators disagree with the DOT's handling of its budget shortfall.
"I think the DOT is sending the wrong message to our partners in economic development by saying 'We're going to delay road projects,'" Rep. Scott Suder, R-Abbotsford, said. "I'm a bit upset with the DOT for taking this approach, and I think it's more of a political approach than a reasonable, rational approach to budgeting."
He added he does not believe the DOT project delays will stand.
Suder was a member of the Assembly Committee on Transportation last session. He is also a member of the Joint Finance Committee, which he said would be taking a closer look at how to assist the DOT with its projects.
Rep. Eugene Hahn, R-Cambria, agreed that the project delays need to be avoided.
"As the session goes on, there will be quite a few initiatives presented, and it will be to bring these projects that are being delayed back on schedule," he said.
The Legislative Fiscal Bureau announced earlier this year that the DOT might need roughly $700 million to cover operation costs.
To start fixing the budget problems, Cook suggests the state get serious about the transportation fund. He cites the state's transfer of funds from the DOT to the general state fund as a partial cause of the budget crisis.
"This is really just the start of a domino effect that is going to impact communities statewide for years to come," Cook said. "It's not 50 isolated projects that are going to get delayed, it's just the first 50 that are going to get delayed."
But some state legislators, including Sen. Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, would like to wait until the governor submits his official budget proposal before making suggestions to the DOT.
"Obviously they have access to more information about what delays would mean and what sort of revenue flow they are expecting," said Tad Ottman, spokesperson for Fitzgerald.
Doyle is expected to submit his budget proposal in February.
In other transportation news, Doyle approved multiple airport reconstruction projects Wednesday. The cost of the projects, which will take place at various regional airports throughout the state, total nearly $2 million.
