Published: March 5, 2010
Tags: filibuster, gas tax, Jim Bunning, surface transportation, Transportation
To the editor:
The filibuster is over but the lesson lives on.
Incredible as it seems, the nation’s most important source of surface transportation funding lapsed this month for the first time in its history due to a bizarre argument in which, somehow, both sides were simultaneously right and dead wrong.
On one side of the argument, a [...]
Published: September 23, 2009
Tags: American Concrete Pavement Association, Association General Contractors of America, federal government, gas tax, highway, surface transportation, toll, Wisconsin Transportation Builders Association
Sean Ryan
sean.ryan@dailyreporter.com
Wisconsin’s fragile status as a winner in federal transportation payments is at stake as construction associations pressure Congress to pass a new law to pay for roadwork.
“The ideal would be for Congress and the administration to come to agreement on a long-term transportation package that provides adequate transportation revenue, and that Wisconsin maintains the [...]
Published: July 24, 2009
Tags: Associated General Contractors of America, Congress, gas tax, National Taxpayers Union, transportation reauthorization bill, Wisconsin Transportation Builders Association
Comments: 3
Sean Ryan
sean.ryan@dailyreporter.com
A federal gas tax increase might be the easiest way to pay for national highway construction and the hardest proposal to slip past voters.
Proponents of such an increase have failed in every attempt for the last 16 years.
But Congress is considering a six-year, $500 billion transportation reauthorization bill to replace the soon-to-expire law, [...]
Published: July 17, 2009
Tags: gas tax, Highway Trust Fund, infrastructure, Surface Transportation Act of 2009
Joe Nathanson
Dolan Media Newswires
Baltimore, MD - Congress is wrestling with how and when to reauthorize the nation’s primary money mechanism for building and maintaining roads, bridges, and mass transit lines — the Surface Transportation Act of 2009. It provides money through federal fiscal year 2015. The current authorization ends Sept. 30.
The new six-year reauthorization would [...]
Published: July 9, 2009
Tags: bonding, deficit, gas tax, oil franchise fee, roadwork, state budget, tolls
Comments: 1
Paul Snyder
paul.snyder@dailyreporter.com
The state’s road map to paying for highway construction during the next two years will drive up the budget deficit the Legislature spent months trying to close.
Jon Dyck, a fiscal analyst with the Legislative Fiscal Bureau, said the state will be on the hook for 10 to 20 years paying off the $204.7 million [...]
Published: May 29, 2009
Tags: Concrete Structures Inc., gas tax, International Union of Operating Engineers Local 139, Jim Doyle, Joint Committee on Finance, oil franchise fee
Comments: 1
Paul Snyder
paul.snyder@dailyreporter.com
The oil-franchise fee is on its way to the state Assembly with waning support from lawmakers and a road-building industry wondering how the state will pay for projects.
“We thought (the transportation fund) was safe in the past, but ever since they took (gas-tax) indexing away, it’s been a question,” said Mike Ryan, president of [...]
Published: May 8, 2009
Tags: budget, Chrysler, Dean Health Systems Inc., deficit, gas tax, Legislature, National Conference of State Legislatures, National Governors Association
Comments: 3
It’s crunch time in Madison as unemployment and tax revenue numbers grow worse.
As May started, unemployment numbers were nearing double digits and grim news of layoffs continued to dominate the news. Those news items stretch from next year’s closing of the Chrysler engine plant in Kenosha and the future loss of its 380 jobs to [...]
Published: May 7, 2009
Tags: Big Oil, gas tax, Joint Committee on Finance, Legislative Fiscal Bureau, oil franchise fee, state budget, Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce
Paul Snyder
paul.snyder@dailyreporter.com
Opposition to Gov. Jim Doyle’s proposed oil franchise fee grows louder as the state’s budget deficit grows larger.
“As far as it goes, most of us have already realized we’ll be looking at years’ worth of legal fees if we choose that direction,” said state Rep. Robin Vos, R-Racine, and member of the Joint Committee [...]
