The Legislature’s budget committee concluded its second day of voting Tuesday with voting for transportation projects, including one in the county of state Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester.
The Joint Finance Committee did not focus on the larger parts of the transportation budget, such as major highway projects. While it invested in some programs like a harbor assistance program, it also cut some borrowing from Gov. Scott Walker’s proposed budget.
Many Republicans want to reduce some of Walker’s proposed borrowing, especially given the $63.5 million transportation fund deficit revealed last Friday.
“We wanted to invest in economic development while reducing some of the bonding,” Sen. Alberta Darling, R-River Hills, who co-chairs the committee, said after the meeting. “I think we accomplished our goal today.”
The committee of four Democrats and twelve Republicans approved a $15.9 million investment in borrowing for harbor assistance, $5.2 million of which would go to a harbor on Door County’s Washington Island. It also approved $700,000 in borrowing for a harbor assistance program in Racine County, where Vos’ home county.
Rep. Cory Mason, D-Racine, had first proposed a $750,000 plan, which the committee rejected in a 7-9 vote, and after an extended break, proposed the $700,000 plan that passed 10-6. The second proposal also specified a year for the spending, which the first did not do.
Darling said although Vos, being from Racine County, made a “big difference” in the vote, committee members realized the harbor would bring economic development to the area.
Sen. Glenn Grothman, R-West Bend, criticized Mason for bringing the Racine proposal forward. He said communities along Lake Michigan have asked for money for their harbors, and the Department of Transportation should choose which ones get the funding rather than legislators.
“We should let the professionals at the DOT determine this,” Grothman said.
The committee eliminated a provision that would have increased regulations on overweight trucks and the increased positions that came with that, which Darling said was due to lawmakers trying to make the state more business-friendly by reducing fines.
The committee also approved $52 million for preserving freight rail, reducing $8 million in borrowing from the $60 million Walker proposed. Rep. Jon Richards, D-Milwaukee, and the three Democrats wanted to keep the $60 million proposal because of the need for infrastructure investments.
“I understand highways [are important] but we also have ailing infrastructure in freight rail as well,” Richards said.
The committee decided unanimously the Circus World Museum Foundation, based in Baraboo, will remain a private-public partnership, rather than be absorbed into the Wisconsin Historical Society.
Steve Freese, the museum foundation’s executive director, told reporters after the vote he was pleased to see lawmakers rejected Walker’s proposal.
Sen. Luther Olsen, R-Ripon, had sought to keep it a private-public partnership, but also wanted to give the foundation $300,000 per year through Historical Society grants. His motion required the foundation to raise donations of at least $450,000 each year, or 150 percent of the grant.
“We need to pour a little money in there [but this] requires the foundation to raise more money than we’re giving them,” Olsen said before his motion failed 5-11.
Mason called the Olsen’s funding “ill-timed,” as the state should direct all the money it can to increasing public schools. Olsen, who chairs the Senate’s Education Committee, has proposed an increase in public school spending, since Walker’s budget keeps it flat.
