By WisBusiness staff
The Transportation Development Association issued a report today on Wisconsin’s transportation system warning of a transportation funding shortfall and recommending a new funding mix.
The report was released in advance of a two-day conference in Madison this week on transportation funding.
The “Our Future Rides On It” report says rising construction inflation, a drop in gas consumption and declining American infrastructure has caused a national decline in transportation funding capabilities. The report further warns that Wisconsin, because of its reliance on revenues from the gas tax, is particularly susceptible to a funding shortfall.
“A series of historic demographic and economic shifts will force Wisconsinites to reexamine how we will handle transportation,” TDA Executive Director Craig Thompson said in a statement. “This report shows that the outcome is really going to be one or the other: either we will take advantage of these changes or we will become victims of these changes.”
The report advocates moving to a mixture of new funding mechanisms in addition to the gas tax, possibly including tolls, per-mile vehicle fees, altered registration fees, or applying the state’s sales tax to gasoline.
See the report:
http://www.tdawisconsin.org/data/publications/StateofTransportation1108.pdf
