The finger-pointing between gubernatorial candidates Scott Walker and Tom Barrett over who is to blame for the problems with the Zoo Interchange would be laughable, if it did not draw attention away from the real issue — the state’s refusal to take care of the highways it builds.
The past few governors and the state legislature never figured that out — if you build a highway, you need to take care of it. They got the first part of that equation — highway building — down pretty good, but the taking care of it part? Not so much.
The Wisconsin Department of Transportation has been an agency run amuck for a long time now, enabled by Governors Thompson and McCallum and Doyle and the state legislators who perennially suck up to the road builders. Got an unnecessary interchange project in Waukesha County? The Wisconsin Department of Transportation is there for you. Want to build a sometimes interchange because of a single sporting event? Just call WisDOT.
But boring ol’ maintenance? Never mind.
The facts are rather neatly and depressingly laid out in the Wisconsin Department of Transportation’s own Budget Trends report. From 1994 through 2009, spending on the three big highway-building programs — major highway development, state highway rehabilitation and southeastern Wisconsin highways rehabilitation — totaled $13.6 billion (transportation debt, most of which is incurred because of those programs, is a separate category). Spending on highway maintenance and operations totaled just $2.7 billion over that same period.
The top blue line is annual highway construction spending. The pink line is annual maintenance spending. Source: Transportation Budget Trends, 2008
Yup. In a state with an aging highway system, the state powers that be decided that only one dollar should be spent on maintenance for every five dollars spent on new construction. Worse, the spending disparity grew over that time period. In 1994 maintenance spending was about 25% of the amount spent on highway construction. In 2009, maintenance spending equaled about 19% of highway construction spending.
Republican Walker, when he was in the state legislature, cast some votes for those bad budgets. But this is a bipartisan issue. Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle rejected a request for a 1% annual highway maintenance budget increases for 2009-11.
And, to introduce a current topic in transportation: the bus. While the Legislature tortuously distances itself from a popular bill to fix and rebuild our public transportation system, Milwaukee County buses face their demise. Given the billions that WisDOT throws around it’s amazing that the electorate doesn’t choose to look at the check before paying the bill and leaving a tip. Nada.
The next round of cuts (after the 20% cuts since 2000) will be another 30% and will leave Milwaukee County with 100,000 jobs inaccessible to transit. (UWM, Center for Economic Development).
The price to fix this? A guarantee that legislators who vote for it won’t lose their jobs in November. A guarantee that no one in this economy has; nearly every citizen is vulnerable to layoff. But our fearless legislators are trying their best to put a good face on a No vote, and save their butts from the unemployment line.
An incredible lack of will pervades the RTA discussion in Madison. We can only hope that the hundreds of citizens (labor, CEOs, students, citizens, elderly care givers, nursing home residents and workers) will prevail and write a bill that our legislators can wake up and sign.
We Want: To allow Milwaukee to tax OURSELVES with a small increase in the sales tax, and a proportionate cut in our property taxes.
What is so hard to comprehend about the will of the people, and our will expressed in the victorious results of a referendum?
Excellent column on the neglect of maintenance of road’s in the most poulated areas while building brand new roads in the middle of nowhere. How do we get Madison to change this policy?