Southeastern Wisconsin is in the midst of the greatest and most expensive upgrades to its transportation infrastructure since the Interstate Highway System was constructed by the Eisenhower administration in the 1950s.
Projects include:
- The $810 million completion of the Marquette Interchange reconstruction was recently completed.
- The current $1.9 billion construction of the I-94 expansion between Milwaukee and the Illinois state line is set to be completed in 2016.
- The temporary $15.3 million reconstruction of the Zoo Interchange has begun.
- The Obama administration recently announced $810 million in federal funding for high-speed rail to connect Milwaukee to Madison.
The burning question now is how will all of these projects be paid for at a time when local, state and federal governments are broke? The issue of funding dominated the discussion of a transit forum co-presented by WisPolitics and BizTimes Milwaukee on Thursday.
The Zoo Interchange, built in 1963, is the busiest interchange in Wisconsin, providing connections between I-94, I-894 and U.S. 45. The Wisconsin Department of Transportation (WisDOT) is repairing three of the key bridges of the interchange.
“Milwaukee has an aging system. It did the job it intended to do from the start,” Tom Carlsen, former WisDOT Secretary, said at the forum. “This was done according to the age and the use of the structure of when it was designed.”
“It has been a perfect storm of design deficiencies in the last 50 to 60 years,” added Kenneth Yunker, executive director Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission, referring to the Zoo Interchange.
According to Ryan Luck, project construction chief for emergency bridge replacement for WisDOT, the temporary repair construction of the Zoo Interchange is contracted for $15.3 million. Construction has occurred primarily during the evening hours. However, ramps have been shut down on weekends.
According to Luck, there are two more closures projected for May and demolition on June 14.
WisDOT is evaluating a long-term solution for the Zoo Interchange. Some have speculated the long-term plan could cost $2.3 billion, which would make it the most expensive project in state history.
“The Zoo Interchange is a bottleneck, and that interchange is the heart of Milwaukee’s freeway system, and that heart beats for the Wisconsin economy and all commercial traffic comes together there with the traffic from Fox Valley and Appleton,” Carlsen said.
“The Medical College of Wisconsin’s No. 1 priority is transportation. We were disappointed with what happened with the budget last year. It is critical to get patients, faculty and students on our campus, especially when we serve over 1 million patients on our campus each year,” said Kathryn Kuhn, associate vice president of government affairs at the Medical College of Wisconsin. “We don’t want to wait until 2016, we need it now and need it done right.”
Funding for the Zoo Interchange reconstruction has fueled a heated debate with local business leaders and politicians who disagree on how to sustain transportation funding for the state of Wisconsin.
“The state of transportation in Wisconsin is in flux, it is in trouble, but is positioned for opportunity,” said Craig Thompson executive director of the Transportation Development Association of Wisconsin. “We need to diversify our funding for transportation.”
On Jan. 28, the Obama administration announced $822 million in federal stimulus funds for high-speed rail projects in Wisconsin, including $810 million for a highs-speed rail line to connect Milwaukee to Madison. The Milwaukee to Madison rail service is expected to be operational by 2013, according to the White House.
“All (projects) need to get done. We can’t just pick and choose and say transit is necessary but then pick and choose. We can’t set a priority. All needs to get done, and that’s the challenge ahead,” Yunker added.
One heavily debated alternative source of funding today was a gas sales tax increase.
“I’d like to get off the gas tax,” said Carlsen in his opening remarks.
Tollways also were discussed as an alternative to tax increases. According to Gretchen Schuldt co-chair of Citizens Allied for Sane Highways, “Tolls are inevitable.”
“When the taxpayer invests money, they want it used wisely, and we need the confidence of the public to invest in this infrastructure,” Luck said.
“We need to find a smarter way for funding in both southeastern Wisconsin and across the state. We need more money and transportation is a return on investment for our economy,” Thompson said.
“Transportation funding is static. If we look at it as static, then we can’t afford to do one project over another.”
“We need to synchronize efforts and get all on the same page with cost factors to eliminate confusion,” said Dan Devine mayor of West Allis.
“To continue to have the CEOs of S.C. Johnson and Son Inc., Roundy’s Supermarkets Inc., and AT&T Wisconsin, some of our last major employers in the state of Wisconsin and economy-based industries behind rail says a lot,” Yunker said.
Liz Ramus is a reporter for BizTimes Milwaukee.
3 Comments
"All (projects) need to get done. We can't just pick and choose and say transit is necessary but then pick and choose. We can't set a priority. All needs to get done, and that's the challenge ahead," Yunker added." - Huh? How can you have confidence in an official that makes that kind of comment? No decision making? No priorities? How daft can you get? If Mr. Yunker means the proposed rail projects need to get done he is incorrect. Certainly we can get by without KRM and the slow train to the Madison Airport- I don't see taxpayers demanding these fiascos- in fact, its all top down demand- politicians, corporate bigwigs, and government employee unions want the trains.
As to Ms. Schuldt's comment about tolls- She was one of the obstructionists (partly because she has a house in the Story Hill neighorhood -kind of like buying next to the airport and then complaining about noise) that stopped expansion of the east-west I-94 from downtown, which in turn is costing taxpayers additional money because of the short-term fix required at the zoo interchange- just another liberal blowing our tax money. But she may be right if we let her and the leftist politicians she supports have their way, as we may very likely will need tolls if the boondoggle trains get built. Because we know the KRM and Madison airport train wrecks certainly will need to be heavily subsidized until they stop operating. And even then, we will have to pay the pensions of the government employee union members that operated the trains.
PS-Ms. Ramus, how about asking every proponent of the trains, what the subsidy per rider is? Let us know how informed they are. Or better yet, how about someone in the BizTimes report the facts about the projections and costs?
Perhaps I might answer some of your concerns, Mr. Marsh. Every survey I'm aware of has shown a strong positive will to build Wisconsin rail service, specifically the KRM Line.
Actually we all pay road costs, even non-drivers. Revenues from users of roads ("user fees"), including fuel taxes, vehicle registration fees and tolls, pay for a decreasing share of road costs. Taxes and fees not directly related to highway use ("non-user fees") and bonds are making up the difference.
Using Federal Highway Administration statistics, in 2007, 51 percent of the nation's $193 billion set aside for highway construction and maintenance was generated through user fees—down from 10 years earlier when user fees made up 61 percent of total spending on roads. The rest came from other sources, including revenue generated by income, sales and property taxes, as well as bond issues.
Forty years ago, user fees amounted to 71 percent of revenues spent on roads; now, user fee revenue as a share of total highway-related funds is at an all-time low since the Interstate Highway System was created in 1957.
In 2007, non-user revenues contributed $70 billion to the highway system. By comparison, this contribution totaled $26 billion in 1967 (in 2007 dollars). Plus, not all user fees collected are even made available for highway purposes. Of the 18.4 cent per gallon federal tax on gasoline, 2.86 cents are already allocated specifically for mass transit projects. Another 0.1 cent per gallon is used to pay for environmental cleanup resulting from leaking fuel storage tanks. From 1990 to 1997, the federal government also set aside a portion of taxes on gasoline, diesel and other fuels to reduce budget deficits. But even if those funds were fully devoted to highways, total user fee revenue accounted for only 65 percent of all funds set aside for highways in 2007. This is down from 84 percent in 1997 and 77 percent in 1967. www.Subsidyscopecom provides a complete data set of user fee revenues and allocations for download.
And then, too, fuel taxes haven't been adjusted to keep pace with rising highway construction and maintenance costs. The amount of federal fuel tax allocated to highway purposes has not increased since 1997 and states have had trouble increasing fuel taxes to keep up with inflation. Increases in fuel prices at the pump can cause vehicle owners to cut back on driving, reducing revenues, and changes in vehicle efficiency can reduce fuel-tax revenues. Federal dollars have declined as a share of total highway funding. As a result, state and local governments have taken on a higher share of road costs and are increasingly reliant on alternative sources of revenue.
(All data are from Highway Statistics, forms HF-10 and HF-210, Federal Highway Administration. All figures adjusted for inflation using the Engineering News Record Construction Cost Index.)
And of course airports and harbors are taxpayer-supported. The airlines and shipping lines certainly don't cover their costs.
One more thing: Wisconsin is a notorious "donor state". Those who insist that "only users should pay" ought to be reminded that we've BEEN paying for all the other rail systems being enjoyed for decades all over these other 49 states, and it's high time they start paying for ours here in Wisconsin. Now let's stop talking incessantly about it and let's get this project started.
Thank you Lou for bringing facts and common sense to this discussion. This is an investment that will help expand our local economies while building stronger connections to the rest of the region.