Groups criticize state for stimulus spending

Published: June 29, 2009
Tags: I-94, roads, stimulus, Surface Transportation Program, transit, WisDOT, Wispirg

Sean Ryan
sean.ryan@dailyreporter.com

The state is not doing enough with stimulus money to maximize job creation because Wisconsin is spending too much on highway expansion jobs, such as the Interstate 94 project, according to two watchdog organizations.

Monday was the 120-day mark by which states were required to have allotted half of their transportation money under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Wispirg Foundation Inc., a Madison-based advocacy organization, on Monday reported Wisconsin could have created more jobs and had a stronger environmental effect if the state had spent more of its money on transit projects and less on state road-expansion projects.

“Rather than investing in new highway capacity, we should instead be prioritizing maintaining the system we’ve got,” said Wispirg advocate Bruce Speight. “Fix it first, as they say.”As of June 15, from its stimulus Surface Transportation Program, the Wisconsin Department of Transportation had dedicated $251 million to road improvement or repair projects, $137.8 million to highway expansion projects and nothing to transit.

But the majority of the expansion money — $96 million — is for the reconstruction of I-94 from the Mitchell Interchange to the Illinois-Wisconsin border. Craig Thompson, executive director of the Transportation Development Association of Wisconsin, said only a small portion of the I-94 budget is for new lanes; most is for replacing the old highway.

“It seemed very cost-effective to add a lane while it was being reconstructed,” he said.

Wispirg predicted the stimulus money would generate 5,464 jobs. But Wispirg and its research partner, Urban Economic Development Association of Wisconsin Inc., Milwaukee, argue transit projects create more jobs than roadwork. Using economic multipliers created by the University of Massachusetts-Amherst Political Economy Research Institute, the study estimated the state could create 1,463 more jobs if the money was spent on transit projects instead of roads.

“Even just from an immediate job-creation point of view, (transit) touches on many different aspects of the economy in that it employs people in many different sectors,” said UEDA program coordinator Megan Carr.

The stimulus money spent on roads is doing what it was intended to do — create jobs, Thompson argued.

He said transit projects received $80 million from a different portion of the stimulus package, so the projects have not been neglected.

“I think we have significant needs in both transit and in our roadways,” Thompson said. “To try to pit one against the other, I’m not sure. I think the stimulus money helped, but I think there’s significant needs in both areas.”

The $80 million Wisconsin received for transit is not enough to satisfy Speight, who said the state should develop a transportation system where “driving is an option, not a necessity.” Other states dedicated some of their Surface Transportation Program money to transit. Oregon gave the most to transit — $21.3 million, or 9 percent, of its Surface Transportation Program money.

Speight said there is a need for new buses and other forms of transit, such as rail, to give residents other ways to get around.

“We should start building it now,” he said. “What better time when we have this one-time opportunity?”

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