GREENVILLE, WI (WTAQ) – As state lawmakers review over $3 billion for infrastructure improvements in the state’s biennial budget, the governor is making a push to garner support.
Governor Tony Evers and Department of Transportation Secretary Craig Thompson toured the state fixing potholes to promote the roads budget this week. During a stop along County Highway CB in Greenville on Wednesday, Evers said it’s important to help counties and municipalities fix problem areas.
“The counties and municipalities do the lion’s share of the hard work in the state of Wisconsin…We have a great working relationship with our municipalities, we understand how important transportation is to the economic development of our state. Getting products from A to B, getting tourists from one place to another, and making sure they spend money here in Wisconsin,” Evers said. “We have very difficult winters and springs, and we have lots of issues like this as a result of the weather in Wisconsin.”
“When the pandemic hit, a lot of people were worried, but we were able to keep all of those projects going during this last construction season. In the state, we had 375 projects and we kept them all going. Some [projects] were able to get done ahead of schedule due to reduced traffic,” Thompson said.
The budget proposal includes nearly $2 billion for highway rehabilitation, $565.7 million for highway development, and $941.9 million in transportation aid for counties and municipalities.
“We have to keep at it. We have bridges in the state right now that [make it] not safe for farmers to get their milk to market. They have to drive an extra 50 miles to get it to where it has to go,” Evers said. “There are plenty of things that we have needs in, and we need to make sure we are consistent and steadfast in our efforts moving forward.”
Some of that transportation aid will focus on public transit as well.
“There are a lot of people that are not drivers in the state of Wisconsin that need public transit opportunities. The state has to step up and make sure that happens,” Evers pointed out.
The plan also includes about $75 million for multi-modal local supplement programs. Counties and cities can apply for those programs to target specific areas of need, but last time they were made available over $1 billion of applications were sent in.
This also comes as the federal government takes a look at a new infrastructure plan.
“We have bridges and interstates across this country that are failing. This is a really important thing for the Biden Administration,” Evers said. “President Trump talked about months ago! We need help. We’ve got lots of infrastructure that our businesses and the safety of our families are at stake, so we need to make sure we have the best infrastructure possible.”
Republican legislators are spending the next few months reviewing and revising Evers’ proposal before sending it back to the governor’s desk.
Comments