Thompson: WisDOT still coming to terms with COVID-19 aftermath

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Wisconsin Department of Transportation Secretary-designee Craig Thompson said Friday that he and his colleagues are intent on maintaining the states’ existing infrastructure as it becomes clear how COVID-19 has already begun changing travel patterns for the long term.

Thompson’s remarks came amid a discussion organized by the Wisconsin Policy Forum on the prospects for transportation and transit following COVID-19. Thompson once again noted how the pandemic has caused a sharp drop in fees collected by the state’s transportation fund. He said that although the Wisconsin Department of Transportation is expected to make up the loss with federal aid, it remains unclear how the virus might change how Wisconsinites get around in years to come.

Thompson said state officials saw traffic numbers fall by 40% between April 2020 and the same month the year before, a direct result of the state’s locking down large swaths of its economy to hinder the spread of COVID-19. Thompson said it’s still a “reasonable hypothesis” that remote working will continue to change traffic trends even after the pandemic has loosened its grip.

“It would sure seem, in the future, the kinds of traffic may change, even if the numbers may not be as drastic as we initially thought,” Thompson said.

This year so far has seen traffic numbers rebound quickly. They were only about 5% lower this year April than in the same month in 2019, Thompson said. In Milwaukee, rush-hour traffic has returned to being nearly what it was before the pandemic. Meanwhile, Thompson said, it’s unclear how the increase in the number of electric vehicles on the road will affect revenue collections.

Throughout the pandemic, state officials have been searching for ways to make do with less revenue than they’re used to. In Wisconsin’s previous fiscal year, the state transportation fund collected $116 million less than projected in both fuel taxes and registration fees, largely a result of many Wisconsinites’ having to work from home. In a memo released last month, though, the nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau reported the state’s transportation fund had in fact fared slightly better than expected.

Meanwhile, it remains unclear how the state plans to use the hundreds of millions in federal pandemic aid that it has received for infrastructure projects. Thompson declined to discuss Gov. Tony Evers’ plans for the money.

“One thing I try not to do is scoop my boss,” he said.

After using the state’s current budget to increase the amount of money the state sets aside for transportation, Evers has put forward a new two-year budget proposal that would mostly keep spending for that purpose flat. If the plan were carried out without revision, WisDOT would have about $80 million less than in the current budget to spend on roadwork. Much of the proposed reduction would be to spending on large megaprojects in southeast Wisconsin.

Not everything would be down, though, The agency wants to spend about $50 million more on repairs to existing roads.

Thompson said the spending proposal would go far toward meeting the maintenance needs of the state’s current transportation system.

“There’s going to be a couple spots largely looking forward it’s going to be trying to maintain and keep in good repair the system that we have,” Thompson said. Follow @natebeck9