By Tracy Will and Andy Szal
For WisBusiness.com
MADISON — Despite a projected $5 billion state budget deficit, lower gas tax revenues and rising costs for labor and materials, a Wisconsin DOT official said today the agency plans to continue major capital improvement projects.
“We are part of the solution for a stimulus to the economy — not only in the short-term, pumping capital into the economy, but also in the long-term part of the solution dealing with the global economy,” Casey Newman, director of the state DOT budget office, said during the Transportation Development Association’s “Our Future Rides On It” conference at Madison’s Monona Terrace.
Newman said the reintroduced oil company surcharge included in DOT’s budget request would be designated for transportation projects. But, Newman added, “it’s up to the governor to decide how to spend the funds based on what’s best for the state.”
At the same conference a day earlier state Transportation Secretary Frank Busalacchi declined to make any commitments to his department’s budget in the face of the projected state deficit. He did say that rebuilding infrastructure is critical to the economic health of the state and the nation, and the state is “ready to go” should Congress provide some financial incentive for transportation building in another stimulus package.
Busalacchi said DOT’s request to the administration may need to be adjusted, but he wasn’t yet concerned about another shift of money from the state’s transportation fund to pay for other state programs.
“I’m more concerned about balancing the budget,” Busalacchi said. He reiterated that maintaining education and getting health care coverage for more Wisconsinites remain the priorities of Gov. Jim Doyle’s administration.
Major projects include the I-94 north-south corridor between Milwaukee and the Illinois border, the Zoo Interchange near Milwaukee, and the Milwaukee-to-Madison high-speed rail line, each costing about $700 million. The oil company tax would bring in $393 million over the biennium if included in the governor’s budget early next year and approved by the Legislature.
Milwaukee-to-Chicago rail traffic continues to increase, so Newman hopes to tap federal funds based on the state’s success in building rail ridership.
“We want to expand Hiawatha service to Chicago, add another car, and add another ‘trainset’ to add another frequency up to eight times daily,” Newman said.
He also said DOT was asking for $24 million in bonding and $30 million in a state match for federal grants to implement intercity rail between Madison and Milwaukee.
“Congress passed passenger rail that authorizes multi-millions in grants to states,” he said. “We hope to get it based on our success building rail customers and improving infrastructure.”
On Wednesday, the DOT’s Busalacchi and Tom Skancke, president of a Las Vegas-based public relations firm, discussed their work on the Congress-appointed National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Study Commission. The commission report, released to Congress early last year, advocated a steady increase of the federal fuel tax over five years, followed by indexing the tax to inflation.
“There is no free lunch,” Busalacchi said.
Skancke said it’s time to declare war on the transportation funding crisis.
Rebuilding and maintaining the nation’s infrastructure “is going to require $3 trillion over the next 50 years,” Skancke said. “That’s the number.”
Skancke urged the transportation advocates in attendance to hound public officials about the need to rebuild infrastructure, saying many don’t see transportation’s connections to business, immigration, and a host of other issues facing the country as a whole.
Skancke derided both public and political aversion to a gas tax increase. He called the federal fuel tax a “user fee,” saying that paying taxes to drive a car on government freeways equates to paying a fare to ride a public bus.
“We all have to be willing to pay,” Skancke said. “This is not a free ride.”
Busalacchi said maintaining a consistent funding source is important because building more infrastructure will create jobs in a struggling economy.
“We’ve got to keep the unemployment number down,” Busalacchi said.
After his speech, Busalacchi commended Doyle for his commitment to transportation and said the public, on both the state and local level, must build trust in both state and federal projects in order to accept the report’s recommendations for tax hikes. He pointed to the recently completed Marquette Interchange project in Milwaukee as a source of pride for his department.
“Part of it is getting the confidence of the public,” Busalacchi said. “They think … all we do is just spend, spend, spend.”
Skancke said the root of the problem lies in the U.S. DOT’s inefficiency, saying that the public has a right to be skeptical when projects are routinely delayed for up to 20 years.
“You straighten out the program, the money will come,” Skancke said.
