WisGOPs want everyday drivers to pay to fix Scottholes, but not their trucking buddies

I wanted to break down part of the massive motion that Republicans negotiated in secret and brought out yesterday evening, and see what we have.

We’ll start with the GOP’s plans to raise vehicle registration fees to help pay for new road repairs.

1. Increase Vehicle Title Fees by $95.00. (LFB Paper #695). Increase the fee for an initial vehicle title or title transfer transaction by $95.00, effective October 1, 2019. This action would increase the total amount of these fees to $164.50. Increase estimated transportation fund revenue by $114,662,600 SEG-REV in 2019-20 and $158,251,000 SEG-REV in 2020-21.

2. Increase Automobile Registration Fee by $10. (LFB Paper #695). Increase the annual vehicle registration fee for automobiles by $10, from $75 to $85, effective October 1, 2019. Increase estimated transportation fund revenue by $28,010,100 SEG-REV in 2019-20 and $37,307,500 SEG-REV in 2020-21.

3. Modification to Registration Fees for Selected Vehicle Weight Classes. Adopt the provisions of LRB 0516/P2 to modify the annual registration fees for the following vehicle weight classes such that the fee amount due for each of the affected classes would be $100, as shown the table below. Increase estimated transportation fund revenue by $7,874,900 SEG-REV in 2019-20 and by $10,618,600 SEG-REV in 2020-21.

So put that together, and you get $150.55 million added for Fiscal Year 2020, and $206.2 million for 2021. And if you’re wondering, this is similar to the amount of money that would have been generated from raising the gas tax a nickel this October and then indexing it for inflation starting in 2020.

But it’s the fees “for selected weight classes” that is the real story to me.

So people that drive light trucks every day are looking at a fee increase. But companies who have 4-5 ton dump trucks will GET THEIR FEES CUT, some by $55! And 18-wheelers won’t pay anything more than they do today, which removes a provision Evers had that would have raised their fees by 10%.

I can't think of any reason to do this other than as payback for campaign contributions from the trucking and construction industries, and it causes a disgusting free ride for the business owners whose vehicles do the most damage to our roads. Oh, but it’s people that are on Medicaid that are the real “welfare” cases, right John Nygren?

There was another idea floating around for having vehicle registration fees be based on how much a car was driven, as a way to be less reliant on the gas tax in a time of improved gas mileage in vehicles. But instead the GOP decided to bury that idea with a $2.5 million study that doesn’t have to be reported on until after the 2022 elections. This is especially pathetic because there have been numerous studies on revenue options in recent years, including the bipartisan “Keep Wisconsin Moving” report that came out at the start of 2013, which was promptly ignored by then-Governor Walker because it asked for (GASP) tax increases to take care of an already-large backlog in road projects.

Instead, Walker spent the next 6 years avoiding reality and borrowing more money while Scottholes kept appearing with alarming frequency.

And while Republicans are running around today claiming “no gas tax increases”, they’re only referring to the direct tax that consumers (and retailers) pay at the pump. If you dig into the motion, you find that $27.4 million would be raised by getting rid of deductions that retailers currently pay get for “evaporation losses” and for the administrative costs associated with sending the fuel tax to WisDOT. But I’m sure that those retailers will eat that cost and not pass it on to people who fill up at their station (Riiiiiight).

I also wanted to go into one other revenue-related aspect of the GOP’s DOT motion, where Republicans seem to be particularly proud of new money they're putting into a current program.

18. 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.

I think this is intended to supplement the current LRIP program, and it has similarities to the road funding scheme some GOP Senators floated earlier in the week. It’s not as heavily slanted to rural areas as that absurdity was, and largely matches the proportions that are in the current LRIP discretionary program.

But it is noteworthy that this would use GPR, and not money from the Transportation Fund. This not only takes away from funds that could have been used for schools or social services or most other items in state government, but it goes on top of the move the GOPs in Joint Finance made to continue sending $87 million of General Fund money to the DOT. Governor Evers wanted to end that transfer, but instead, there wouldn’t just be that $87 million that goes to WisDOT in this budget, but $177 million with the GOP’s measure from Thursday.

It is positive that Republicans in the Joint Finance Committee finally could admit that we needed to have more resources to fix our roads in the state (likely because they were feeling the heat), and it’s also good that borrowing in the budget would be kept at the relatively low level of $326 million, in line with what Evers wanted.

But how the money was raised could have been done in a much better way, by making tourists pay at least a portion of that added revenue via the gas tax, and by not allowing heavier trucks to avoid the registration fee increases that every other state resident will have to pay. However, it seems that these moves leave Governor Evers an option of vetoing and/or changing some of these inequitable fee increases (including that stupid fee cut given to owners of 5-ton dump trucks).

We’ll see if this DOT package survives in its present form, or has to be modified as it goes through the full Legislature (some GOPs are already complaining about it). Regardless of the outcome, a lot of people will be left unhappy with what happens with WisDOT in this budget, and it’s in no small part because getting honest on transportation funding is several years overdue.

And we also are like to be burdened by WisGOPs who don’t want to allow Evers to get a “win” (even if everyone benefits), and are allergic to the word “tax”….even if they don’t mind raising other payments everyday people like you and will make to WisDOT in the near future.