WisDOT aims to increase revenue

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The Wisconsin Department of Transportation is preparing its pitch to increase revenue for the state’s 2015-17 budget.

Mark Gottlieb, WisDOT secretary, told members of Assembly Transportation Committee on Tuesday that the department is studying ways to increase the money it brings in, and probably will present ideas to the governor as part of its next biennial budget proposal.

He said he did not know exactly when the plan would be put forward, saying the timing depends, in part, on when WisDOT learns how much federal road aid it will receive.

His comments came during a hearing on Assembly Bill 704, which would put about $43 million more toward rehabilitating 11 stretches of state highways. Lawmakers questioned how WisDOT chose the projects, which include various resurfacing, maintenance and bridge work.

VIEW THE 11 PROJECTS

Gottlieb said the department worked with officials in its five regional offices to find candidates for quicker construction. He said nine of the projects were scheduled to start in 2015 and are merely being moved forward by a year.

Gottlieb said the department worked with officials in its five regional offices to find candidates for quicker construction. He said nine of the projects were scheduled to start in 2015 and are merely being moved forward by a year.

“This will give us the opportunity to advance other projects sooner,” he said, “to fill the void created by the advancement of these projects.”

The additional $43 million will come out of the $84.6 million surplus the nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau predicted the state’s transportation fund would have at the end of the budget period on June 30, 2015. Most of that surplus was not projected when lawmakers passed the state’s current budget in the summer and nearly $35 million had been taken away from highway rehabilitation in response to a projected deficit.

Gottlieb said Tuesday that the additional revenue will help WisDOT keep up with maintenance of state roads, but only make a dent in the roughly $688 million deficit expected for the transportation fund in the 2015-17 budget. He said state officials will have an eye on the shortfall when they consider ways to bring more money into the system.

A member of the transportation committee, state Rep. Penny Bernard Schaber, D-Appleton, asked if the recommendations would take up any of those made by a commission convened by Gov. Scott Walker and state lawmakers to study the state’s transportation needs. In January 2013, the Wisconsin Transportation Finance and Policy Commission released a report calling on the Legislature to increase the state’s gas tax by 5 cents a gallon, charging drivers 1.02 cents for every mile they travel and increasing the fee charged for drivers’ licenses from $24 to $44, among other things.

Lawmakers have not acted on those recommendations. Bernard Schaber praised the commission’s work and said she wants its suggestions to be given weight in whatever proposal WisDOT puts forward.

“I do think we should carefully consider these,” she said, “if we make some major changes to how we fund transportation.”

But Gottlieb, who has said WisDOT will hold a series of meetings in the spring to solicit public opinion on transportation spending, declined to endorse any particular means of raising revenue. To win widespread support, he said, anything that is put forward will probably have to be balanced by tax cuts, such as those that Republican lawmakers have proposed to pass this legislative session.

“We will be relying on the analysis the commission did,” Gottlieb said. “But as far as whether or not the revenue suggestions may be included, it’s premature to say.” Follow @TDR_WLJDan