Group sees tie between road money, election success

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A lobbying organization encouraging state lawmakers to raise more money for transportation projects is citing this week’s election as a sign that the political momentum is on its side.

The Madison-based group DRIVE — which stands for Devote Resources, Invest for a Vibrant Economy — sent out a news release Wednesday contending that every candidate for state office who won at the polls the day before had used their campaigns in part to call for a solution to “Wisconsin’s long-standing transportation funding problem.”

That last phrase is often used to make veiled references to support for an increase in the state’s gas tax, registration fees or some other revenue source.

“While candidates discussed a number of various funding options, there was clear consensus around the need for a sustainable solution that resonated with voters statewide,” Bill McCoshen, executive director of DRIVE, said in the news release. “Voters clearly want the transportation funding problem solved!”

Some contend, though, that DRIVE’s conclusion rests on shaky ground. Eric Bott, state director of the right-leaning group Americans for Prosperity Wisconsin, said it’s simply not true that every candidate who expressed support for raising additional transportation revenue won on Tuesday.

Among the most prominent candidates to go down that day was Winnebago County Executive Mark Harris, a Democrat whose campaign for an open state Senate seat representing the Fox Valley area included support for raising the state’s gas tax by 3 cents. Harris lost to Dan Feyen, a former chairman of the Fond du Lac Republican Party.

Bott noted that Harris was hammered by radio and TV ads noting his support for the tax increase.

“This is always an unpopular issue,” Bott said.

There were two somewhat strange twists in the Harris race. For one, many of the ads attacking Harris were paid for by Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce, a pro-business group that has historically supported raising additional revenue for transportation projects. Also, Harris’ opponent, Feyen, had himself called for a 5-cent increase in the gas tax.

Bott said the results, more than anything, show that transportation revenue really wasn’t on voters’ minds when they cast ballots on Tuesday. Republicans succeeded at the polls, he said, largely because of the wave of support for Donald Trump and because they had better-organized ground campaigns.

“It’s silly to say it was a mandate on transportation one way or the other,” Bott said.

Still, at least two Republicans who held onto their seats — state Rep. Ed Brooks of Reedsburg and Rep. Kathleen Bernier of Chippewa Falls — most likely benefited from attack ads targeting their Democratic opponents’ openness to transportation-revenue increases. And at least one Democrat who went down to defeat on Tuesday — state Rep. Chris Danou, of Trempeleau — said he had made support for the state’s transportation budget a central part of his campaign.

Still, Danou said he doesn’t think that position is what hurt him in the end. Like Bott, he tied Democrats’ difficulties largely to Trump’s success.

“It was a Trump wave in rural Wisconsin,” Danou said.

In other signs that the public might not be ready to warmly embrace the idea of paying more for roads, voters in Wausau on Tuesday shot down a proposal that would have had local vehicle owners paying a $20-a-year wheel tax starting in 2018. That defeat came amid a trend that has seen local officials turning more and more to wheel taxes to make up for transportation aid they used to be able to get from the state.

Milwaukee County officials last week adopted a $30 wheel tax that will be tacked onto the $75-a-year registration fees already collected by the state. And ofthe 16 counties and municipalities that have a wheel tax, 13 adopted them in the past two years, according to the nonpartisan group Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance.

Elsewhere, voters in Vernon County’s town of Franklin voted 292 to 260 on Tuesday against a proposal that would have let local officials raise $300,000 a year for five years to pay for maintenance work on highly traveled roads.

McCoshen said he takes heart that the vast majority of Republicans running for the state Assembly were on board with the GOP’s so-called “Forward” agenda — a series of policy proposals that includes willingness to consider a revenue increases once spending has been reduced as much as possible. But even with success in the Assembly, any transportation proposal would also have to get through the state Senate, which Republicans also control and where opposition to raising the gas tax or registration fees is stronger.

Then there’s Gov. Scott Walker. He’s repeatedly said he would not support an increase that was not offset by a tax reduction elsewhere in the budget. McCoshen said he is optimistic that lawmakers will be able to reach a compromise that can both meet the governor’s requirement and win enough support to get through the Legislature.

“This is just the beginning,” he said. “But we are not interested in sending something to the governor that will not be signed.” Follow @TDR_WLJDan