Groups call for more local transportation spending in budget

A coalition of nonprofit groups on Tuesday called for the adoption of a state transportation budget that would put more money into local roads and transit at the expense of highways, according to a news release put out by the groups.

The plan was formed by WISPIRG, a consumer-advocacy group, as well as the Wisconsin chapter of the Sierra Club and the 1,000 Friends of Wisconsin, both environmental groups. According to the release, the plan comes in response to Gov. Scott Walker’s two-year proposed budget, which would have a bit more than $3 billion spent on transportation in each of the next two years.

Deemed the “10 percent solution,” the plan calls for reducing the governor’s proposed spending on highways by $300 million in each of the years and putting $100 million of those savings toward local road projects and transit systems. The remaining $200 million would come out of the $1 billion in bonding the governor’s calls for in the next two years to pay for projects such as the reconstruction of the Zoo Interchange and Hoan Bridge in Milwaukee, according to the release.

At a Joint Finance Committee hearing on the governor’s budget last month, state Rep. Dean Knudson, R-Hudson, challenged Wisconsin Department of Transportation Secretary Mike Gottlieb to find a way to remove $200 million from the bonding proposed in the department’s budget.

— Dan Shaw