In a story written by Bill Osmulski, the Maclver News Service reported that money set aside specifically for local road repairs fed a free-for-all cash grab after Governor Tony Evers diverted it into a new grant program open to any local transportation project.
That opened the door to dozens of local projects, some of which have nothing to do with local roads.
The new program created by Evers, called the “Multimodal Local Supplement program” (MLS), with $75 million the legislature budgeted for the Local Roads Improvement Program (LRIP), using his veto pen. On January 9th, the Department of Transportation announced that the new program received $1.5 billion in grant requests, but only $75 million has been budgeted for the program.
According to the Maclver story, “many of those requests clearly have more to do with tourism than with transportation,” such as the following:
West Bend is requesting $4.1 million for a downtown River Walk.
Potawatomi Tribe is seeking $600,000 for an ATV trail.
The City of Spooner wants $3.9 million to renovate an old railroad station into a museum.
The Village of Belleville wants $542,000 to restore an old depot into business space.
The Town of Solon Springs is seeking $347,500 for a scenic overlook.
Madison is seeking $15.6 million for transit and $4 million for the Autumn Ridge multi-use path.
Sun Prairie is asking for over $8 million for walking paths, along with Janesville and Green Bay where about $2.5 million for more walking paths.
Two Rivers is seeking $1 million for bike paths plus $2.4 million for a dock wall repair. Back three years ago, Two Rivers City manager, Greg Buckley argued that the state needs to raise the gas tax because “major highway projects are getting delayed, and local maintenance and reconstruction efforts are inadequate.”
There are twelve other communities that are seeking funds under the MLS program including Glenwood City, which has requested money for their Safe Route to School program at an estimated cost of $650,220. There are 19 grant applications from St. Croix County communities including the Town of Emerald for $1,085,293 for 250th Street. The Town of Springfield for 270th Street in the amount of 170,000, the Town of Baldwin at $1 million for Rose Lane, and the Village of Woodville for Best Road in the amount of $922,280.
There were 22 applications for funds from MLS in Dunn County with the county asking for $2,387,413 for C.T.H. B, another $1,2062,200 for the City of Menomonie for Stokke Parkway.
The Village of Boyceville is seeking $463,850 for work on Sykora Lane. The Village of Colfax is working on a grant for Amber St., High St. in the amount of $1,402,000, while the Village of Elk Mound is asking for $417,994 for Railroad St.
Other Dunn County municipalities seeking grant money include Town of Colfax, $162,902; Town of Grant, two projects totaling $276,038; Town of Red Cedar, three projects totaling $2,469,391; Town of Otter Creek, $356,729; Town of Tainter, three project totaling $1,390,168.
The Village of Clear Lake is seeking $1,130,200 for work on Third Street.
While some might consider many of the projects on the list frivolous, taxpayer funded lobbying groups point to the $1.5 billion list in Wisconsin as evidence the state needs to invest more in transportation.
Mike Koles, executive director of the Wisconsin Towns Association, called it a “clear, undeniable record of the unmet needs.”
Governor Evers has also diverted $90 million away from the Local Road Improvement Program for the MLS and additional education funding. If he hadn’t done that, all the money would have gone to local roads.
The applications will now be scored on a variety of criteria including economic impact, connectivity and cost effectiveness. After that, DOT Sec. Craig Thompson will approve the final award recipients.
