While Gov. Doyle commits to spend billions to widen freeways that don’t need widening, city streets are falling apart. The situation is dire and aldermen are getting desperate to come up with some way of making things better or at least slow the descent into much, much worse.
Ald. Jim Bohl came up with an idea that will increase funding for street repairs by, in a roundabout way, increasing property tax rates for non-city units of government like the county, school district, Milwaukee Area Technical College and Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District.
Bohl wants to use TIF district funds to pay for street repairs. TIFs are an economic development tool that allows municipalities to borrow to make improvements in an area, then use the new property tax revenue generated through the improvements and subsequent private development to pay off the loan. The borrowing municipality — in this case, Milwaukee — gets to use all of the new property tax money to pay down the loan instead of distributing the revenue to other taxing units as is customary.
Bohl’s idea — received warmly by several other aldermen — is to increase project costs within some or all of the city’s 48 TIF districts and use the extra money to fund street repairs outside of the districts, but within a half-mile of their borders, something state law allows. The city gets to keep the money generated by the TIF a little longer to pay off whatever the street work costs.
The other taxing units still need to collect the full amount of their levies and other property taxpayers simply will have to come up with more money to make up for the amount the city is withholding — they will, in short, be taxed at a higher rate because of the city’s keeping the TIF funds to pay for street repairs.
Yes, the streets really, really need fixing and Bohl is at least making an effort to get the damned streets fixed. Unless I’m really missing something, though, Bohl’s plan essentially would force other units of governments to put the cost of the street projects on their tax levies. This does not seem like a development likely to foster goodwill and cameraderie amongst all those starving local units of governments who can barely cover their own expenses.
Road-builders pouring concrete and money on the ground all over the state are having a good chuckle, though. No starvation worries for them. They’re eating well at the state trough.
The Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission, in developing a key transportation plan, failed to consider key demographic data, overstated the amount of money invested in transit and misrepresented highway funding, according to the American Civil Liberties Union.
More here.
Gov. Doyle’s budget proposal would strip legal rights and potential state protections from property rights who challenge the State Department of Transportation when it grabs privately-owned land for transportation projects, budget documents show.
Doyle accepted a WisDOT budget request to limit legal fees a court can award to lawyers who represent property owners who successfully claim that WisDOT shortchanged them in the amounts the agency offered for property. The governor is proposing that attorney’s fees in litigated compensation cases be limited to one−third of the difference between WisDOT’s offer and the court-awarded purchase price, except that if one−third of that difference is less than $5,000, the amount of attorney fees included in litigation expenses may not exceed $5,000.
The limits would apply when the court-awarded sales price exceeds the the WisDOT offer by at least $700 and at least 15 percent.
WisDOT made it clear, in its original budget request, that its intent was to discourage lawyers from representing property owners.
“Litigating land purchases consumes more time and resources within the Department compared to negotiating directly with landowners,” the department said. “It could adversely affect the timeline of highway construction projects. Securing land can be a first step in a project and any delays can impact final completion and overall project cost.”
Doyle’s budget also would strip residents legal protections from residents who challenge government land grabs. Under current law, the Daprtment of Commerce can investigate when the state tries to condemn and take property to make sure the state is obeying the law. If there are violations, Commerce can take the state to court. The governor wants to end the department’s ability to help the land owner.
Doyle also would kill the right of a person who loses their property to appeal to Commerce for review of his or her complaint. Under current law, Commerce can try to negotiate an acceptable solution with the agency that condemned the property. Commerce would not be able to do that under Doyle’s budget.
Finally, Doyle’s budget would kill a law that the attorney general, at the request of Commerce, to prosecute all necessary actions or proceedings for the enforcement of the laws relating to relocation benefits.
One bidder for the Zoo Interchange? Rethink the bid criteria
Tuesday, December 1st, 2009In this economy, getting just one bid on a multi-million dollar project likely means your bid criteria stink.
The Wisconsin Department of Transportation solicited bids for the $12 million to $22 million Zoo Interchange bridge repair project and got exactly one bid — from Milwaukee Constructors LLC, which is made up of Edward Kraemer & Sons Inc.; Lunda Construction Co.; and Zenith Tech Inc., the same folks who brought you the bulk of the Marquette Interchange, according to the Daily Reporter.
But just one bid? When construction firms are dying for work?Is WisDOT kidding?
Tags: Freeways, Wisconsin Department of Transportation, WisDOT, Zoo Interchange
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