Funding Crisis

Bob Cook, executive director of the Transportation Development Association (TDA) of Wisconsin, said a report released Aug. 24 by the Joint Committee on Transportation Needs and Financing validates what transportation experts have been saying for several years: the state's transportation infrastructure

"The bottom line is that Wisconsin is failing to keep pace with basic transportation demand, and the result is that Wisconsin's economy and traveler's safety is at serious risk," Cook said.

The joint committee's findings show that soaring construction prices, rising oil prices, record borrowing, and stagnant revenue are squeezing the state's Transportation Fund.

This situation will hinder the state's ability to adequately pay for state highway construction, state highway maintenance, local road aids, and urban mass transit, not to mention assistance for aviation, rail or ports across Wisconsin.

According to the Legislative Fiscal Bureau, it will take as much as $700 million a year to meet statewide transportation needs as determined by Department of Transportation plans.

The report cited four factors that have placed the future of the transportation infrastructure system in serious long-term jeopardy: the transfer of over $1 billion from the transportation fund to general-revenue programs; increased reliance on borrowing for transportation programs due to the transfers; the elimination of automatic indexing of the state gas tax; and escalating construction costs which have significantly eroded the purchasing power of the state's transportation revenue.