Reason 10: Reduce spending or increase taxes. Departments of transportation across the country have recognized that the gas-tax is no longer sufficient to fund transportation programs. Due to cars becoming more efficient and using less gas (or in the case of electric vehicles, no gas) revenues into state transportation funds have steadily declined over the […]
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Reason 9. We are over-engineering our highways. The state is proposing to spend over half its projected transportation budget for 2013-2015 on the repair, maintenance and rehabilitation of roads, in addition to significant highway capacity expansion. In many cases, when a road is being rehabilitated – it becomes wider, allows faster traffic flow and has […]
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Reason 7. Borrowing on our future. Wisconsin has taken on increasing debt to pay for new highway capacity. The percentage of Transportation Fund revenue that comes in from bonding has skyrocketed over the last decade – and has created a fiscal crisis. It is estimated that by 2023, the transportation fund will be spending 25 […]
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Reason 4. General revenues are not appropriate for funding highway expansion. The federal gas-tax has not been changed since 1993, causing major shortfalls in the Transportation Fund as increasingly more efficient vehicles use less gasoline. These shortfalls in gas-tax revenue are being paid for by the state, often by raiding the general fund. In the […]
Read more about "#4 of 10 Reasons WISDOT Budget Needs to Change"1000 Friends of Wisconsin is dismissing the draft recommendations issued by the Transportation Finance and Policy Commission as being a one sided propaganda piece for the road building lobby. In comments to Wisconsin Transportation Secretary Mark Gottlieb, the group called for the commission to go back to the table and make recommendations based on no […]
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As a result of a lawsuit filed by 1000 Friends of Wisconsin, the Wisconsin Department of Transportation has agreed to reconsider its earlier decision to widen Highway 23 between Fond du Lac and Plymouth. The agreement, which was approved by District Court Judge Lynn Adelman, calls for Wis DOT to reconsider a “Super Two” lane […]
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