Election Day Results: Road Issues...

[J N Winkler]

Carlson, like Mike King before him, was appointed primarily to keep quiet about how the Brownback tax cuts were wrecking the agency budget.  Kelly is currently serving as a member of the Legislature's state transportation funding task force and has expressed an interest in restoring lost transportation funding, though I did not feel she was prepared to make it a marquee issue like education (it is going to take additional money to keep school funding out of the courts) or child protection (in Wichita, where DCF left 25 out of 38 child abuse investigator positions unfilled, there have been three high-profile deaths of children that were linked to abuse).

One proposal on the table is to pay back the $2 billion taken from KDOT to cover budget shortfalls reuslting from the Brownback tax cuts.  The action the Legislature and the governor take on this will give an idea of where things are headed in terms of transportation.

[MantyMadTown]

Nothing directly road-related in WI, but the state of our roads was an issue in the campaign.  Though we have a new governor, the legislature remains firmly Republican (thanks to gerrymandering!) which means any structural changes to road funding are a non-starter.  I'm not sure how much the new guy is going to be able to do with the purse strings still held by those unwilling to invest in infrastructure.

I am deeply pessimistic that divided government will encourage compromise in this environment.  At best, Wisconsin may slow the bleeding.  A change in management doesn't automatically mean we can revive certain projects or step up our maintenance game when the money isn't there.

I just hope that Evers can put more money in the budget to fix our roadways, despite our legislature.