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Local WI road funding gets more support

The proposal to create the Wisconsin Agricultural Road Improvement Program now has more than thirty organizations supporting it.

A letter was sent to lawmakers Tuesday from ag groups, grocers, truckers, lenders, transportation builders, and Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce seeking support for Legislative Reference Bureau bills 2553 and 2631.  The groups say funding would repair or replace structures under twenty feet in length (i.e., under the threshold for the use of federal funds) and would complement the newly available federal revenue for local bridges.

The plan pushed by the state’s agriculture coalition and drafted into legislation by Joint Finance members Senator Howard Marklein and Representative Travis Tranel would use 150 million dollars of one-time funding from the projected budget surplus to repair or upgrade local roads.