Transit supporters worry budget change makes future cuts more likely

 

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- On any given day, there's a good chance you'll find Pat DeFrain at a bus stop. The retired librarian sold her car in 2007, becoming entirely reliant on walking and the Milwaukee County Transit System.

"It's better for the environment. It's a lot less hassle," DeFrain said. "People don't have to find parking downtown, it's easier to get places that are popular to go to that don't have a lot of parking."

DeFrain, along with local officials in Wisconsin's large and mid-size cities, watched closely this week when lawmakers on the budget-writing Joint Finance Committee set transportation funding for the next two-year state budget.

The Republican-controlled committee boosted transit funding statewide by 2%. At the same time, GOP lawmakers moved those transit dollars out of the transportation budget -- where they have been for the last 50 years, according to the Legislative Fiscal Bureau -- and into the general fund.

Transit advocates worry the change makes it more likely lawmakers in the future will cut transit funding.

"That [change] does give me cause for some concern," Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley told a CBS 58 reporter Thursday. "At the end of the day, by moving transit over to [the general fund], we're now gonna be competing with all these other things that the state legislature debates during the budget cycle."

During debate Tuesday night, when the committee set the transportation budget, co-chair Rep. Mark Born (R-Beaver Dam) noted local road funding was also receiving a significant boost. Born added the GOP road plan has less bonding than in the budget Democratic Gov. Tony Evers proposed in February.

The budget includes a 2% funding increase for both county and municipal road aids. Evers' executive budget called for a 4% increase in transit funding.

Born's office did not respond to questions about why lawmakers moved transit spending into the general fund.

"I certainly share those concerns," DeFrain said of the budget maneuver. "Transit belongs in the transportation fund. It shouldn't be in a general fund that they can do whatever kind of cuts they want down the road, so I am concerned about that."

In the 2021-23 state budget, the legislature slashed transit funding for Milwaukee and Madison while leaving the rest of the state's transit agencies untouched.

Republican leaders said two years ago the federal pandemic dollars the Milwaukee County Transit System and Madison Metro Transit received lessened the need for state funding.

Crowley has been a frequent visitor to the Capitol in recent weeks as Milwaukee leaders negotiated a deal with Republicans that will allow the city and county to pursue increased local sales taxes, with strict conditions on how that money can be used.

One of those restrictions is Milwaukee cannot use tax revenue on its streetcar, known as "The Hop."

Crowley said Thursday he was hopeful legislative leaders would come to see transit spending as an investment in connecting workers with employers.

"Making sure that we can move our biggest commodity -- human beings -- around to these job sites, to take up some of these job opportunities," he said. "Or just going to take care of their personal business."