Transportation Commission Report: “Mixed Blessing for Taxpayers and Commuters”

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WISPIRG

Statement of WISPIRG Director Bruce Speight on Transportation Finance and Policy Commission Final Report to the Governor and Legislature

“The Wisconsin Transportation Finance and Policy Commission released its final report today which is a mixed blessing for Wisconsin taxpayers and commuters.  On the one hand, we applaud the report’s recognition that we must repair and maintain our crumbling roads and bridges and adjust to changing demographic and transportation trends with more and better transit.  On the other hand, the report recommends a whopping $354 million annual increase in the major highway projects budget, an extravagant and unnecessary waste of taxpayer money seemingly designed to appease the highway lobby.

WISPIRG encourages legislative leaders to get our transportation priorities straight by cutting wasteful spending on unnecessary and costly highway projects and prioritizing the repair and maintenance of local roads and bridges and the transit infrastructure that Wisconsinites, especially young and elderly residents, are using in record numbers.

A May 2011 WISPIRG Foundation report, Building Boondoggles: Is Governor Walker Spending Billions on Four Roads to Nowhere?, examined the official documents for the four new major highway projects enumerated in the 2011-2013 biennial budget.  This report found unanswered questions, outdated justifying data, and insufficient review for projects that could end up costing Wisconsin taxpayers $2 billion.  The Commission’s answer to this is a $354 million annual increase in the major highway projects budget.  We cannot afford to build extravagant and shiny new highway projects to nowhere when our existing roads, bridges and transit systems, which many Wisconsin workers and commuters rely on, are crumbling and underserving the needs of our communities.”

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WISPIRG-The Wisconsin Public Interest Research Group, is a non-profit, non-partisan public interest advocacy organization.