- If the split amongst Republicans at the top in
Wisconsin is rare, so too is the bipartisan agreement over road
funding and the need to raise revenue.
Democratic member of the Assembly Transportation
Committee Representative Deb Kolste of Janesville says the
current course is an unsustainable path.
Thanks for being here.
- Thank you very much for having me.
- Well, so you have called for an adequate dedicated funding
source for vital transportation infrastructure.
What in your mind would be the best source or sources?
- Well, you know, in 2006 we had a steady -- before I got to
the legislature, they said we were going to have a $700
million shortfall and they gave all sorts of suggestions,
starting in 2011, 2013.
They gave us a billion dollar shortfall and put all the
options on the table: increased gas tax, go back to indexing,
look at toll roads, increased licensure and registration fees.
I mean, all those -- you know, I don't think there's one thing
that's going to make--get us out of this hole.
I think it's going to take a look at all of the above.
They tried to say efficiencies could maybe get this out of
this.
But I don't think that's possible.
Some of the efficiencies they brought--this is a -- you know,
a big project and little, small amounts of money aren't going to
get us out of the problem.
- What is the status -- I know that because of this problem
some of these major projects have been delayed, but what is
the status in your district of the I-39/90 project?
- Well, that's still a go, but it's not supposed to be finished
for another four years, so this is a system.
And so there needs to be -- you know, everything needs to be
fixed.
So while we're held whole in this budget, that doesn't
necessarily hold true for the next budget if we don't find a
source of revenue.
- If bonding allows the interstate project in your
district to proceed, are you still opposed to such borrowing
as a funding mechanism?
- I'm not necessarily against bonding, but at the rates that
we've bonded, it's a cause for concern.
I think in 2006 we were at 7%.
I shouldn't quote that number.
But we are at 20% of, you know, to meet the cost of the bonding,
and it's supposed to level off at 25% of all revenue dollars
would go for the cost of bonding.
And that's probably not a sustainable way to go.
So although most major projects do need -- have bonding on them,
I think this is just not a sustainable path right now.
- You say quote the failure to address our crumbling road
system is perhaps the governor's most visible misstep.
Wisconsin roads are ranked third worst in the nation.
Democrats seem to be saying that republicans made this problem.
But what about during the democratic administration, when
$1.4 billion was transferred out of the transportation fund to
the general fund?
- Well, we rectified that problem by the constitutional
amendment to keep road monies where it is.
But over the long run, over the whole process of transferring
GPR to transportation and transportation back to GPR, GPR
has paid more into transportation than vice versa.
So that problem has been rectified.
The revenue that goes to transportation stays in
transportation.
The problem is there's just not enough revenues into
transportation, and I have grave concerns about where some more
revenues might come, which would be out of general purpose
revenue.
- What are your concerns about that?
- Because everything else comes out of general purpose revenue
also.
We already had to cut $250 million from the universities.
If we continue to use more out of that to fix the
infrastructure on the highways, something else is going to have
get cut and that concerns me.
Because we know Medicaid is going to continue to grow, just
because we always have to meet the need.
So programs like educational just take a hit and that
concerns me a lot.
- What's your position on cutting other taxes if gas taxes
or registration fees have to go up?
- Well, it would be the same as taking from GPR.
If we cut taxes, our problem is right now that we don't have
enough revenue to cover all the programming.
The revenue for the transportation is expected to go
up .
5% and the cost of inflation for road projects is four times
that.
So we have a revenue problem in transportation.
I don't want to cut education.
- All right. Representative Deb Kolste, thanks very much.
- Thank you. Appreciate it very much.