So will this budget fix the Scottholes as it stands? Well, it's a start

Now that the Joint Finance Committee has passed the state budget forward into the full Legislature, I wanted to take a step back and see where things stood with road spending. In general, there should be more work done and the damage of several years of Scott Walker's neglect should at least be leveled off for the next 2 years if the current budget stands as it does today.

Here's a comparison of the spending levels for the last two years under Scott Walker, and then a comparison between Governor Evers' proposals, and what eventually made it through the GOP-controlled Joint Finance Committee.

You may notice that gray bar of $90 million in the 2020 JFC budget, and that it's coming out of GPR (General Tax Dollars) instead of the Transportation Fund. That funding is described as follows in the mega-bill that the GOPs on JFC put through earlier this month.

Local Roads Improvement Program -- Onetime Funding (LFB #720). Provide $90,000,000 GPR in 2019-20 on a onetime basis to a newly-created GPR appropriation that would be used to fund local government project costs that would be eligible for program funding under the current law the local roads improvement program discretionary component, to be allocated as follows: (a) $32,003,200 for county projects; (b) $22,847,400 for municipalities; and (c) and $35,149,400 for towns. Specify that notwithstanding local road improvement program cost-sharing requirements, that a required local project cost match of 10% of total project cost would apply to project submitted for funding under the GPR appropriation. Require DOT to solicit project applications for this funding, beginning in 2019-20, until the funds appropriated have been expended. Provide DOT the authority to promulgate administrative rules for this purpose.

Basically, this is a mini-stimulus meant to move repairs and projects for local communities further ahead. Given that local governments have been starved for years in the Age of Fitzwalkerstan, which is a central cause of so many of the Scottholes on local streets and roads, this seems to be a needed investment. And it's a much better idea than what Senate GOPs floated earlier, which would have targeted almost all of the money to rural counties and roads.

However, this "one-time bonus" funding still seems to favor more rural areas, since nearly 3/4 of it will go to counties and roads. I also can't help but notice that this is the next provision in that JFC mega-motion for WisDOT.

Local Bridge Assistance Program Earmark -- City of Kaukauna. Adopt the provisions of LRB 2860/P1 to require DOT to provide a local bridge assistance program grant to the City of Kaukauna in 2019-20, notwithstanding the statutory requirements of this program. Specify that this grant would be used for Veteran's Memorial Lift Bridge and would fund 80% of the remaining project costs.

Guess who represents the City of Kaukauna? Jim Steineke, the Number 2 GOP in the Assembly. And that comes 18 months after $242 million was sent to the district of Speaker Robbin' Vos to speed an upgrade of I-94 in Racine County for Foxconn, along with $134 million of that State Highway Rehab money being sent down to the Foxconn-sin region to upgrade local roads for a project that seems likely to add a lot fewer jobs these days. OINK!

Spending tax dollars is great when it goes to our people!

This morning on the statewide "UpFront" show, host Matt Smith discussed WisDOT issues with Jerry Deschane of the League of Wisconsin Municipalities, and Deschane at least was happy to see the bleeding stop, which is something that never happened in the Walker era.

(Deschane): They address the whole system, but particularly city village and town streets, which, as you know, have been in dire straits for a long time. I think it is safe to say this is the most progress we have made on this problem in 10 years....We can make [WisDOT] as efficient as we want, but the fact is the cost of asphalt is the cost of asphalt, and we have not pumped additional resources into that part of our budget in a long time. It is time to do something. That is where we found the general consensus.

Deschane also said there was still room to improve when it came to funding transportation in the state, as the JFC's decision to throw all of the added money on everyday vehicle registrations and title transfers means that tourists are the only ones that don't have to pay more for the Wisconsin roads they use.

I will say this, this stabilizes the problem. This is a huge step forward. Long-term, I think we all need to ask ourselves, is [a] registration fee increase and title transfer fee increase, which basically both fall on the back of residents, is that the only way to solve this problem. Should there be more of a broad-based user fee, gas tax increase, something like that? I think to get to the sort of promised land you needed something that says to the people passing through "Hey, you should chip in, too. And that is a gas tax increase, but we will not get there now.

While Evers won't be able to restore his proposed increase to the state's gas tax with his veto pen, he could use it to remove some disparities that appear in the JFC bill. The biggest one to me is the fact that owners of 4 and 5-ton dump trucks are getting their fees CUT while everyday Wisconsinites would have to pay $10 more. He also might want to take a look at that earmark for Steineke and use the pen on that one.

But that's really all that needs to be fixed with the DOT's funding with the bill as it stands today. The funding levels are similar to what Evers was looking for, and it is a definite improvement over the neglect that happened over the last 8 years, and led to all of the Scottholes that riddle our state today.