Walker's DOT Funding Disaster affecting Cities Roadways Across the state. Go Tax Cuts....

Scott Walker's plan includes ratcheting down taxes to the point where everything will suffer from deferred maintenance. Want to fix a road, cut school funding. Or do what other communities are doing, going back to dirt and gravel roads. 

The Republicans freeloaders in this state are fine wearing out the legacy projects from generations past. It was owed to them I guess. From WISC Channel3000:

The League of Wisconsin Municipalities estimates local governments will spend $12 million beyond their budgets on road repairs this year. Beloit alone is estimating they'll need a couple hundred grand to cover unexpected costs.

If that total statewide tops $18 million, they can ask for FEMA disaster funds. Until then they're asking the state for help.

"Because we have a levy limit that does not allow for us to pay for this or raise taxes the only way you can pay for this in a city like ours is to take it out of something else so some other service is not handled," said John Dickert, mayor of Racine and president of the Urban Alliance.

Our out-of-state Governor Walker travels a different road, and not the dirt roads returning to Wisconsin.

I posted a story on dirt roads awhile back. Gov. Walker's push to bring back dirt roads is an odd bragging point, ya think? The Republican legislature decided to kick the can down the dirt road in the last budget, preferring to take general fund cash and charging the rest. That story from Rock County still gets a lot of hits today.

Well, here’s another one, from the Tomah Journal:

Monroe County has two options for its highway systems —either reinvest in the system or let the county highways turn back into dirt roads — according to highway commissioner Jack Dittmar. The Wisconsin Information System for Local Roads, a program through the Wisconsin Department of Transportation, supports Dittmar's argument. The program says Monroe County's highways require millions of dollars in repairs.

Let’s hear what a Republican thinks of this mounting problem, and his well thought out solution:

Supervisor James Kuhn wasn't convinced that moving toward dirt county roads would be a bad thing. "Dirt roads are nothing new. They work," said Kuhn.

You would think something deep inside this guy would tell him that's not right, something’s really not good about that option. The reason's for the funding shortfall may require solutions our pledge taking Republicans would never support:

The highway system is in dire condition after 15 years of rising construction costs without a corresponding rise in revenues for the department.

"For us, the real key ingredient is asphalt," Dittmar said. Asphalt has gone from $25 per ton to $60 per ton since 1999.

"Our revenues has been pretty much stagnant," Dittmar said. Although the total county tax levy has doubled in the past 15 years, highway tax levy has been roughly $2 million per year since 2000.

"We can't do any more with less. We've been doing that for too long," Dittmar said.

 Here’s Rachel Maddow with another back to dirt roads story.