8 Cent Gas Tax is Bridge to Electric Vehicle Future, and will phase-out naturally over time.

Gov. Tony Evers' proposed 8 cents a gallon increase on gas was a fair way to fund highways, asking everyone who uses Wisconsin roads, local and out-of-state drivers, to pay for repairs and replacement.

The Republican reaction to raising taxes showed the world what really matters them most; politics! Sticking with their no tax pledge, Wisconsinites are now on the hook exclusively for transportation funding and spending every penny of their tax cut savings. Sweet. It also lets interstate drivers off the hook. That's Wisconsin friendly.

Scott Walker/GOP record on Transportation: Note the jump in interest for transportation borrowing. Add to that the Republican fee increases hitting only Wisconsinites:

Fee Increase, No Gas Tax is a Bridge to the Future? The only reason Republicans didn't raise the gas tax; as hybrid and electric cars take over, it would negate any increase in the gas tax.

WPT's Here and Now host Frederica Freyberg argued with Republican Rep. John Nygren that such a changeover and possible new toll road funding was a long way off: 

Gasoline/Gas Tax would phase out Naturally with Increased Electric Vehicle Use!!! My head is exploding over how easy this one is to grasp. Adding an 8 cent gas tax now would pay for our roads until then, creating that "bridge to the future." We would also be making interstate drivers pay as well. Republicans are either this stupid, or they're just trying to sell another ridiculous excuse to their unquestioning voters. Maybe both.

Again, the 8 cent increase would naturally phase out in the changeover, so what's the beef? From Upfront, here's Mike Nichols from the right-wing Badger Institute admitting we're about 20 years out from seeing any major benefits from toll roads or a majority of electric vehicles. Imagine how 8 cents a gallon would help fund transportation in that time. Arrgggggg:

...and Republicans did it all without increasing taxes?

I usually leave the economic and job numbers up to Jake's Wisconsin Funhouse, but on a more macro level, I've got a few observations of my own.

On transportation and unrelated tax cut for lower and middle class:

1. The Republicans said that raising fees is a tax increase. Okay. And that hits every Wisconsin driver in the pocket, not out of state road users. Got it.

2. That tax/fee increase is for transportation funding only, and has nothing to do with the general revenue fund. Got it.

3. To supposedly balance that fee/tax increase in the constitutionally walled off transportation fund (take that Jim Doyle), Republicans decided to cut taxes out of the...general revenue fund?

4. So the GOP middle class tax cut would permanently reduce the general revenue fund by $250 million a year. Got it. And no, it's not paid for or balances off the fee increases.

5. Oddly, Republicans are now bragging they did all this without raising taxes (fee/tax increases)?

I'm not that great with numbers, but seriously, does any of this work?

1. Republicans pretend no gas tax is needed as a bridge to the move toward hybrid/electric cars, because they think we don't already know they in the pocket of big oil and trucking.

2. Republicans pretend we'll never need revenue for solving the escalating CAFO/Dairy Farm disaster killing off family farms. Corporate farms can contribute more campaign money.

3. Republicans pretend cleaning up contaminated drinking water in the state won't cost a thing.

4. Republicans pretend costly lead pipe removal isn't a priority, a waste of rural taxpayer money, and is just a big city problem.

5. Republicans pretend transportation magically will pay for statewide mass transit that would connect nearby more affordable rural communities, maybe add train routes and trips. Not happening thanks to anti-localized tax Republicans:

The Republican-controlled state Legislature has opposed regional transit authorities, which would have the power to levy taxes as another source of funding for public transit. Former Gov. Scott Walker signed a law In 2011 barring the creation of RTAs. That law dissolved RTAs in Dane County, the Chippewa Valley and Chequamegon Bay and also eliminated the Southeastern Regional Transit Authority, which aimed to establish a commuter rail line connecting Kenosha, Racine and Milwaukee.

6. Republicans pretend the green energy changeover won't cost a thing because climate change is a hoax and the electrical grid...uh, what's that?

Okay, I'm done venting. As you can imagine, this post would have taken years to write if I had supplied every link to stories I already have a tab for in my browsers. 

GOP makes Wisconsinites pay and pay again for Medicaid and all Transportation Funding

UPDATE-JUNE 7, 2019: Finally, Dems got the message...from the JS:

Democratic Sen. Jon Erpenbach of West Point said raising the gas tax would be better than increasing fees to make sure all drivers — not just those from Wisconsin — were paying more to maintain the state's roads.

"It lets out-of-state drivers off the hook," Erpenbach said. "Registration fees aren't the fairest way to go. That's not going to get the Illinois drivers, the Iowa drivers, the Minnesota drivers."

Echoing that sentiment, Evers spokeswoman Melissa Baldauff said the measure “isn’t the long-term solution Wisconsinites are asking for,” in part because out-of-state drivers wouldn’t be required to pay more for Wisconsin’s roads.

_________________________________________________________________________________________
Are you seeing a pattern too? Sadly, I'm not sure Democrats have caught on yet. If they have, why haven't they said anything publicly, or tried to beat this thing into the ground in the media?

It's pretty simple really, Drain Wisconsin Taxpayer Revenues; Republicans have killed infrastructure and social service spending so they could fulfill their tax cut obsession, that's not a mystery. But, they can't keep progress, innovation, and upkeep from happening statewide, making reality and real world problems...a problem for Republicans. 

The Scott Walker Scheme: Walker figured tight budgets would make it easy to cut spending, so he decided to ignore federal funding and instead use Wisconsin tax dollars to pay our bills. It's crazy but true. And it's on purpose. Walker and GOP leaders artificially created tight budgets.

CASE #1: Making Wisconsinites Pay for Everything...so it Hurts: Now thanks to Sen. Fitzgerald and Rep. Robin Vos, were going to drain Wisconsin's general revenues just to pay for Medicaid, skipping our very own federal dollars. The scheme continues...:  

Republican lawmakers voted Tuesday to add $588 million in new state funding for health care programs in Wisconsin under a spending plan that won't include ... plan to expand Medicaid by tapping into $1 billion of federal funds.

Say good-bye to freeing up a massive "$324 million in state funds to spend elsewhere" and putting 82,000 more people living in low-income households on BadgerCare. 

Taxpayers Pay, so Insurance Companies can Money?: With insurance premiums going up all the time, the phony claim below is almost laughable. Oh, but it does increase hospital costs treating the uninsured. You can't make this stuff up:

Republicans have opposed Evers' plans to accept more funding through the Affordable Care Act because they believe doing so will drive up costs for those with private insurance. 

Then there's this...

Rep. John Nygren, R-Marinette, said the committee was "taking some of the Medicaid surplus based on the fact that our enrollments and growth in the program have gone down."

And about that supposed "surplus"...

Republicans Waste $69 Million of Taxpayer Money just to Penalize the Unemployed, hopefully Deny Them Benefits: What Walker Republicans said was urgent still hasn't been funded or implemented. $69 million is the estimated cost of job training for BadgerCare and Foodshare. And that's just for 2 years, imagine that as a reoccurring bill:   

Republicans lawmakers approved the job training programs under former Gov. Scott Walker but have not yet implemented them ... recipients can lose their benefits if they aren't working or participating in job training. Republicans must now consider earmarking funds to provide job training to BadgerCare Plus ($33 million) and FoodShare ($36 million) recipients over the next two years.

You can kick to the trashcan the myth Republicans don't like government bureaucracy and red tape: While Republicans streamline regulation for business, they're piling on a maze of regulation for people, their constituents, making their lives a living hell:

Work Requirements: Wisconsin is the fourth state to get approval for a Medicaid work requirement ... Adults under age 50 who do not have children would have to be employed 80 hours a month, undergo job training or do community service to be eligible for health care benefits ... charging premiums to low-income childless adults who are making as little as $6,070 per year, and many people in that income range do not have checking accounts or credit cards that they can use to pay monthly premiums. No other state has gotten federal approval to completely remove people below the poverty level from Medicaid because they are unable to pay premiums."

In Arkansas, thousands lost health coverage when that state implemented work requirements. Democrats in Wisconsin say the same will happen here.

CASE #2: Making Wisconsinites Pay for Everything in Transportation: This is a major pet peeve of mine, because this is so simple yet so odd: Republicans want to make taxpayers pay for road funding so out-of-state drivers don't have too??? They must know they're doing this, right? This should be the first thing blaring out of the mouths of Democratic lawmakers...but isn't. Do Democrats have a messaging problem or what? Someone, anyone?

The plan introduced by members of use (one time) state surplus funds to direct about $72 million to counties and $62 million to towns. Fitzgerald said GOP lawmakers were considering raising registration fees, title fees and heavy truck fees, but he didn’t say by how much. Tolling could also be an option.

And every once and awhile mentioned under their breath so as not to upset anyone...

Evers' transportation secretary, Craig Thompson noted under the GOP plan Wisconsin wouldn't be collecting additional sums from out-of-state visitors, as it would under Evers' plan.

"The reason we put together the package the way we put ours is we thought it would be the most affordable and the fairest to everybody. If you do it via the gas tax, we get everybody that's driving into the state that fills up to help pay for it. If we do it with registration fees, we're only charging Wisconsinites."

Walker's Roads to Ruin!

Here's a headline history of Scott Walker's growing transportation problem, just in case you might have missed them, in no particular order. Also a few other facts:

Walker transportation spending of $404,250 + for work not done tanks Federal funding help!!!

Walker's Bad Management: Scott Walker is trying to paper over reality, thinking his purely political right-wing fantasy can actually replace real-world oversight and management of our state's massive economy. Here's how Walker saw himself in 2011:

"This wasn't about some wild political agenda ... I just came in trying to, like a small business owner, I saw a problem, saw a solution, I tried to fix it."

But Walker has never worked outside of government, which makes him the real thing, a career politician.

So the Walker administrations transportation bumbling and deception tanked any chance of us getting desperately needed Federal funding for road work. And I'm guessing, Republicans voters won't blame Walker one bit, rewarding him at the polls. Tribal-like partisan politics showing no sign of slowing down.

JS: As a percentage of the nearly $200 million budget for rebuilding a chunk of Wisconsin’s busiest freeway, $404,250 might seem insignificant ... money ... paid by Wisconsin taxpayers for work that was never done? And what if the state knew it when the bill was paid?

That’s what happened when contractors for the Milwaukee Zoo Interchange project double billed the state for 15,000 cubic yards of gravel, enough to help pave one lane of highway for five miles. Although a project engineer with the Wisconsin Department of Transportation discovered the discrepancy in advance, and alerted supervisors, those in charge insisted the contractor be paid the additional money anyway, an investigation by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has found. The federal agency had initially agreed to cover 50 percent of the cost for the gravel.

The result of this knowing abuse and frivolous spending of taxpayer money?

When regulators at the Federal Highway Administration learned of the payment, the agency made a rare decision to withdraw federal funding that had been allocated for the work, saying justification for the expenditure “seems inconsistent” and “makes no sense,” according to documents obtained by the Journal Sentinel through state and federal open records laws. As a result, state taxpayers had to cover the cost. And, the same bidding arrangement that allowed for the double payment was used for dozens of other projects, raising the opportunity for additional misspending ... Yet nobody sought to recover the funds. And nobody has been held accountable for the waste.

A Delusional Scott Walker thinks "Special Interests" attacking him, fabricating need for road repairs and Transportation Funding!!!

Voters are wising up Scott Walker odd opposition to transportation!!?

Even criticism from a former Republican legislator and DOT secretary don't mean anything when it comes to Scott Walker's backward hatred for transportation. Not all of us have airplanes to scoot around Wisconsin in Scotty. Keep this in mind as well, Walker's transportation funding shortfall forced the DOT to stop picking up roadkill carcasses. Yup, it's that bad here.

Based on nothing and backed up by pure political nonsense, Walker backhands criticism:

Gov. Scott Walker is dismissing fresh criticism from his former transportation chief, who says Walker isn’t leveling with Wisconsinites about the consequences of his approach to funding ... Mark Gottlieb, a Republican who led the state DOT from 2011 to 2017, said Walker is “fear-mongering” by claiming his campaign opponent, Democrat Tony Evers, could raise the gas tax by as much as a dollar per gallon.

Yet Wisconsinites were supposed to go along with Walker's "trust me" approach to union busting, tax cuts, DNR deregulation, the loss of local control, and rejection of alternative energy? 

Walker fired back at the Milton event: “What’s ridiculous is Tony Evers is just expecting the voters to take a ‘trust me’ approach when it comes to taxes.”

In one of the most surreal moments of his tenure as governor, Walker bashed his own DOT report and all those subsequent "special interest" studies that factually counter his ideological position.

“The reports that many people allude to are reports they paid for, overwhelmingly, by the same special interests that are running ads attacking us on transportation,” Walker said.

Gottlieb said Walker's claims wrongly implied that decisions ... were made by outside groups. He noted state and federal laws require extended review of such decisions and officials take into account public input ... "is profoundly disrespectful to the professionals in the private and public sector who are trained to design and build safe and efficient highways for all to use."

Walker Blames Himself? Even worse, Walker asked for and got his own fact-based state/taxpayer-funded DOT report, what I guess he now calls "special interests."

A commission championed by Walker and created through legislation signed by him, (which) had eight Republicans and two Democrats, chaired by a transportation engineer by trade Mark Gottlieb, then-secretary of Wisconsin’s Department of Transportation, released an 176-page report, affirming what at least two other commissions led by both Republicans and Democrats over the last decade had found: Wisconsin’s highway system and local roads were rapidly deteriorating and there was not enough money to fix or maintain them.

A question for Walker, just what study(s) are you relying on...editorial musings from right-wing sources like the Wisconsin Watchdog, MacIver Institute, or talk radio callers passing along their personal anecdotes...?

 The problem Walker has with anything comes down to one thing, criticism, he can't take it: 

“If the media’s now using reports that are paid for by groups as the base, as their foundation, maybe I should go out and create a group and pay for my own study.”

The irony; Walker did just that as mentioned above. But wait...Walker did have one solution rolling around in his head...

Gov. Scott Walker's transportation secretary told business officials and others last week he had talked to a London financier about selling off Wisconsin's highways but had rejected the idea.

Transportation Secretary Dave Ross told a group last week that Walker's administration was adopting new ways of getting its work done and mentioned in passing his discussion about selling off roads, according to people familiar with the meeting. He then said he was not pursuing the proposal because Wisconsin has good contractors to maintain the state's roads.

Governor candidate Tony Evers passed this message along...

Walker's Democratic opponent, state schools Superintendent Tony Evers spokeswoman Britt Cudaback said Ross' talk with the financier was shocking and noted Walker's previous transportation secretary, Mark Gottlieb, this month said Walker has been "increasingly inaccurate" when talking about roads.

"Quite frankly, it’s staggering and absurd that Scott Walker would even entertain the idea of selling off Wisconsin’s highways to the highest bidder. No wonder his former transportation secretary has spoken out about his harmful roads policies."

Speaking of Harmful, Wisconsinites Paying for Fixing up their Cars, thanks to Walker:

1. A combination of rough roads, traffic congestion and missing safety features costs drivers in Wisconsin $6.8 billion each year, according to a study released Tuesday by TRIP Tuesday.

2. That comes to about $1,500 a year for every driver in the Appleton, Green Bay and Oshkosh area, the study said, referencing higher vehicle operating costs, traffic crashes and delays due to congestion.

3. The cost is about the same for drivers in Wausau, but even higher for those on the roads in Madison and Milwaukee — at about $2,100 and $2,300, respectively.

4. (The study) also found that about half of the state's major locally and state-maintained roads and highways are in poor or mediocre condition due to a lack of state and local funding.

5. That number is even higher in the Appleton, Green Bay and Oshkosh area, where 70 percent of those types of roads are in poor or mediocre condition. That alone costs drivers in the area $816 each year, according to the study.

Walker officially abandons Roads and Transportation Funding, says so in reelection bid.

I am a big mass transportation guy. High-speed trains, commuter rail, buses, electric scooters, and bikes...

But what about our highways? As Wisconsin roads crumble under Scott Walker's weird vision of our transportation future, voters finally got a clear picture of how bad things will be getting:

"There are some groups out there that want to spend billions and billions and billions of dollars on more, bigger, wider interchanges across the state. I actually think we should be fixing and maintaining our infrastructure. I don’t know that we need bigger and better and broader right now when we have a changing transportation system."

I've never been on board with "liberal" groups that would love to take us back to deadly two-lane highways. With the proliferation of electric and hybrid cars, old arguments about cars trashing the environment are disappearing, albeit slowly, thanks to Wisconsin's love affair with trucks. But there are hybrid SUV trucks like the Toyota Highlander, so what's the problem here?

Scott Walker's Lying, a common 2018 GOP campaign platform: I didn't say it. That's straight from a diehard former 8 year GOP legislator:

Walker has been "increasingly inaccurate" when describing the state's highway system, said Mark Gottlieb, Walker's former transportation secretary. Gottlieb is the third former top aide to Walker to speak out against the governor in recent months. The GOP governor isn't telling the truth about road projects and is taking a high-risk gamble that could see the state invest billions of dollars in obsolete highways. 

Gottlieb reacted strongly to Walker's suggestion last week that the state could save money by declining to add lanes when it rebuilds roads ... 

Walker's sounding every bit as irrational as Trump about transportation, and these guys are the ones in control?

The governor contended people may drive less in the future, but Gottlieb noted traffic has been increasing since the country climbed out of the 2008 recession. "Most highways being actively considered for expansion in Wisconsin are already unacceptably congested today, causing delay, economic loss and higher crash rates," Gottlieb said in his statement. "How much risk are we willing to accept to see if the governor’s predictions hold true? If they don’t, we will have spent billions of dollars to duplicate 1960-era designs that will be obsolete the day they are built." Gottlieb said he was speaking out because Walker hadn't been honest about transportation.

Will voters buy into Walker's reasons for not funding roads? I'm not seeing a Gov. Doyle connection in the comment below, are you...

Walker campaign spokesman Austin Altenburg blamed former Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle for shifting money from roads to schools.

Really? So shifting money during the GOP's free-market gift to the world, The Great Recession, to schools was a bad thing? Fund roads not schools?

Gottlieb, a former Civil Engineer, should know: Walker also lost federal funding, more of our own tax dollars coming back to the state because he couldn't show how the state would "fund the work:"

Gottlieb said Walker's claims wrongly implied that decisions about expanding highways were made by outside groups ... state and federal laws require extended review and officials take into account public input. Gottlieb cited the study for rebuilding I-94 between the Marquette and Zoo interchanges in Milwaukee ... runs nearly 1,000 pages and cost more than $20 million to produce. "The governor’s seemingly offhand comment that the decision to widen our highways is driven by outside interests is not factually based, and is profoundly disrespectful to the professionals in the private and public sector who are trained to design and build safe and efficient highways for all to use," said Gottlieb, a retired civil engineer.

Walker initially backed the project, but shelved it last year after federal officials said they were prepared to withdraw their authorization for the project because the state couldn't show it had a way to fund the work.

Walker makes Federal Funding Disappear: Under Walker's "don't ask, ask and I still won't tell" policy, just assume the worst:

High flying Gov. Walker says we should take Uber or Lyft! Maybe a private plane?

So many of us have assumed that as our state roads crumble and get worse, Scott Walker would have to do something...well, we were really really wrong. And now we know why Walker has shown little concern for transportation funding:

"There are some groups out there that want to spend billions and billions and billions of dollars on more, bigger, wider interchanges across the state. I actually think we should be fixing and maintaining our infrastructure. I don’t know that we need bigger and better and broader right now when we have a changing transportation system."

Our career politician and governor loves flying the friendly skies now for trips to simple campaign ads and haircuts. But now after his two taxpayer raised sons entered the freeloading lifestyle of politics, he's convinced taking a plane or hailing an Uber or Lyft is normal. This, from a guy who does not believe in mass transit, commuter rail, or high-speed trains.

Tony Evers has to be smiling after Walker's completely insane public meltdown on transportation. Think I'm kidding?

Walker noted drivers are increasingly using hybrid and electric vehicles and questioned whether relying on the gas tax will remain a good way to fund roads in the future. "We can do it without a massive gas tax increase," Walker said of funding roads. 

We all must be like his overweight, silver spoon fed, right-wing kids, with pockets full of lobbyist  change for cab fare:

He also raised questions about how much people will drive in the future, saying his two sons in their 20s use ride-hailing services Uber and Lyft more than they drive.

Walker's Surreal Idea of Success sets the bar Lower every Year!

While I have other more civilian duties as a family guy, here are a few stories I wish I had more time to detail and beat to death.

Walker Ignores Transportation, Promises more if Reelected? This was covered well at Jakes Wisconsin Funhouse, but here's a brief and scorching taste. Having driven through a number of southern states on my weeklong vacation, I can now see what Walker aspires to:

The Wisconsin Department of Transportation reports that total funding across all state transportation programs has fallen since Gov. Scott Walker took office in 2011, despite statements Walker has made insisting he has made historic investments ... spending has fallen across every road program, including major highway development, local road aid and assistance and southeast Wisconsin freeways, which saw the most dramatic decline.

1. From fiscal year 2011-2012, funding for major highway development decreased by 31.2 percent, highway improvement funding fell by 23.8 percent and local road funding fell 13.4 percent in constant 2017 dollars. Funding for southeast freeways dropped by 51.1 percent.

2. Debt service on transportation borrowing has increased 66.9 percent since fiscal year 20121-12, according to the report.

 In short:

Since @GovWalker took office:

⬇️Funding for major highway development decreased by 31.2%
⬇️Highway improvement funding fell by 23.8%
⬇️Local road funding fell by 13.4%
⬆️Debt service on transportation borrowing has increased by 66.9%https://t.co/C9Psaxi2rD

— Gordon Hintz (@GordonHintz) August 29, 2018

Does lying make it better, or politicizing transportation funding?

Walker has maintained that he has put $3 billion more into the state's transportation system than his Democratic predecessor, Jim Doyle, investing $24 billion over eight years. That statement has been rated "mostly false" by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel for failing to consider inflation and for counting the amount of money that was borrowed, then spent on transportation twice, once when the money was first borrowed, and again when payments were made on the debt.

Walker's former transportation secretary, Mark Gottlieb, said, "Debt service has increased 85 percent in the last eight years, to the point where we now spend five dollars on debt service for every three dollars we spend on the maintenance of state highways. Gottlieb is the third former Walker secretary to criticize his former boss, alleging that during Gottlieb's six years at the helm of the state's transportation agency, Walker increasingly politicized transportation issues.

Wisconsinites Barely Surviving, Falling Behind...After $8 billion in Walker Tax Cuts? Gee, I wonder who got those tax cuts? Not the poor and middle class. For audio coverage, check out this interview on WPR:

The 2018 Wisconsin ALICE report looks at household need beyond the federal poverty level to better understand where people who are living paycheck-to-paycheck struggle most. ALICE is an acronym for the criteria that bring this group of Americans together — Asset limited. Income constrained. Employed.

1. 37.5 percent of Wisconsinites had income levels that do not meet the true cost of living, a new study by United Way found. Between 2010 and 2016, the number increased five percent, compared to the total increase in the state's number of households (two percent).

2. People who fall under the ALICE threshold struggle to make ends meet, often despite working more than one job ... And with almost 1 in 3 people in the state making less than what United Way researchers determined as Wisconsin's "Household Survival Budget" ($19,848 for a single adult and $61,620 for a family of four), it's unlikely that ALICE has an unfamiliar face.

And you can blame some of this on the lack of healthcare, again. In Walker's world, things like below don't happen. Universal nationwide insurance would put an end to this:

36-year-old LaWanda McCullough was a "success story" in the Wisconsin Works (W-2) job training program — that is, until she got sick. Two years ago, she was working, her children thriving in school. Seven months ago, she came home from work and blacked out … several issues including diabetes and sarcoidosis … wore a heart rate monitor. At her doctor's recommendation, she went down to working part time. She was denied disability assistance. McCullough said, " no matter what I do, I can't get ahead."

AG Brad Schimel Politicized Justice Department:  Like politicizing the Transportation Department, Walker has done the same to AG's office thanks to his willing dupe, the incompetent Brad Schimel:

45 former assistant Wisconsin attorneys general have signed on to a letter criticizing current Wisconsin Attorney General Brad Schimel: Schimel's Democratic opponent Josh Kaul contends the GOP incumbent has "blatantly politicized the office, dropped the ball on his role as the lead crime fighter in Wisconsin, and abdicated the AG’s traditional role as 'the people’s lawyer' representing Wisconsin citizens’ interests in criminal and civil matters alike."

One of the letter's authors denies partisan intent. "Nothing like this has ever happened before," said Dan Stier, who served as an assistant attorney general from 1979-89. "We've all been around a long, long time. We've seen lots of attorney generals come and go, and no one has ever been motivated to do anything like this until now." 

Only 10 of those who signed the letter have worked directly for Schimel, but Stier said knowledge of the attorneys general's policies, including overseeing staffing cuts in the state Department of Justice's Environmental Protection Unit and choice not to sign on to a lawsuit challenging for-profit colleges, are evidence of political motivation. Schimel's campaign dismissed the letter as a statement from "partisan activists."

Walker's decaying Bridges force Farmers to travel extra miles, wearing out less traveled roads down!!!

Yup, another story...I'm not quite sure why rural conservative farmers keep voting for Scott Walker after he just keeps making things worse. What is happening, seriously?

It’s not crop prices that keep Shane Goplin up at night. It’s infrastructure.

Goplin, who grows corn and beans on about 3,000 acres in northern Trempealeau County, has seen the drive to his fields quadruple thanks to weight limits that keep him from driving trucks and harvesters across aging bridges. 

New weight restrictions were placed on nearly 200 Wisconsin bridges — most on county and town roads in the western part of the state — this spring. As a result, farmers and truckers have been forced to take detours to get their products to market and haul half-filled loads from “landlocked” fields.

“This is a very serious concern for us. We want to make sure farmers can get to and from their fields,” said Rob Richard, senior director of governmental relations for the Wisconsin Farm Bureau. “If they can’t make the quickest, most efficient route they’re just adding wear and tear to other roads. … then it becomes a larger issue.”

While Walker and our congressional Republicans ignore the plight of the entire dairy industry, they're now allowing the rural network of roads to disintegrate for every other farmer trying to make a living, while the cost of their business and equipment skyrockets. Add to that slow or no rural broadband:

“It’s unacceptable in an agricultural state like Wisconsin that we have no schedule for when these bridges are going to be replaced,” said Craig Thompson, president of the Wisconsin Transportation Development Association, a coalition that supports increased investment in the state’s transportation network. “We need a schedule.”

Bill Freise, who hauls about 150 to 175 truck loads of grain to La Crosse each year from his Melrose farm, said bridge postings in recent years have forced him to find a series of new routes.“That’s not the end of the world. But someplace along the line we have to address our infrastructure,” Freise said. “What we’re looking at here is just the tip of the iceberg.”

UPDATE-Tuesday, 5/29/2018: Oh No, Bridge Collapses during Walker reelection efforts!!! It's amazing how much additional spending Walker is able to stomach during election years? State roads and bridges are crumbling, while Walker repackages much-needed maintenance revenue as budget surpluses to justify tax cuts? Wake up...

WPR: In a press release issued by Gov. Scott Walker's office on Friday, Walker announced $76.4 million in state aid going to 113 bridge projects scheduled for a program cycle running from 2018 to 2022. The current state budget included an increase of $20 million to the DOT’s local bridge program. Walker said, "We are providing the largest increases to local road and bridge aids in 20 years.

A very grandiose Trumpian declaration indeed. In other words, only collapsing bridges will be replaced...as "needed to achieve safety."

WISDOT Secretary Dave Ross echoed the governor's applause of the "Replace-In-Kind" program ..."This means we're going to build exactly what is needed to achieve safety and to improve the transportation infrastructure."

The Walker Years: Ignoring Facts for Political Spin.

Like a slum landlord, Scott Walker is an absentee manager of our state, letting transportation infrastructure crumble. The same can be said for everything else we stopped spending money on; K12, the UW, state parks, the environment, disappearing dairy farmers, mass transit, rural broadband...and Walker wants another term? 

Walker governs to fulfill a certain ideological end, putting no effort into trying to solve the states real-world problems. How else can you explain why other Republican states have dramatically raised their gas taxes to meet their growing infrastructure needs but Walker's Foxconnsin hasn't?

But it's not just me saying this:

 Mark Gottlieb, 61, resigned as DOT secretary in December 2016 after a six-year tenure … He is frustrated by what he says is a disingenuous portrayal of the facts on transportation and troubled that the state is neglecting crucial road improvements. Walker wrote in the June 2016 letter. “Proposed spending on mega projects in Southeastern Wisconsin should be minimized.” Prescribing a specific cabinet agency’s budget request is atypical, Gottlieb and others familiar with the process say. “We got to a place where the facts were being ignored in favor of political spin,” Gottlieb said.

As Walker explained, and his spokespeople continue to reinforce, that...:

"Gov. Walker (said) he will never support a revenue increase for roads without an equal or greater decrease in taxes elsewhere." 

It's taken years, but Cap Times reporter Katelyn Ferrel finally pointed out the obvious:

The tax cuts Walker has championed, including eliminating the state's portion of the property tax, the child tax rebate and sales tax holiday, have not triggered an increase in transportation spending.

Former Transportation Sec.Gottlieb said, “Don't they claim to have cut taxes by billions of dollars? Taxes have been cut but there has been no corresponding increase in transportation revenue.”

Walker's Charge Card "Spending" on Roads: Walker is once again setting Democrats up as "tax and spenders;" making them pay for road rebuilding through tax increases when they finally take back the reigns of government: 

Former Department of Administration official George Mitchell, also a school choice advocate and has donated more than $15,000 to Walker, said, “Whether it’s under Gov. Walker or under a different governor, the problem they faced last time is going to be there and worse. The state is now in a big fix because of the failure of a Republican-controlled government to honestly confront the problem and deal with it, and that goes to the executive branch in the east wing.”

Walker knows infrastructure is a Democratic Party priority. He also knows voters hate tax increases. It's a tactical thing, and conservative voters love it. So Democratic spending will get future Republicans elected:

...Walker fully repaid the $1.4 billion Gov. Jim Doyle transferred from the state transportation fund ... much of that through borrowing, according to figures from the LFB.

...Walker “has budgeted $3 billion more in actual dollars into transportation than his predecessor. Local road aids are the highest ever.” Much of Walker’s “actual” dollars were borrowed dollars, according to LFB figures. And although local road aids have increased, they have come at the expense of total state highway spending, which, according to LFB figures, is the lowest it has been in 10 years. Total highway funding has been on a steady decline during Walker’s tenure, from $3.11 billion in the 2013-15 budget to $2.79 billion in 2015-17 to $2.54 billion in 2017-19, according LFB reports. Money allocated for the highway improvement program is down 8.8 percent from the last two-year budget, according to the LFB.

Walker, like Trump, filling Departments with Cronies: Would private corporations hire unqualified people to manage their business? But Walker would:

In 2016, Walker replaced Gottlieb and his deputies with Ross and two deputies from the Public Service Commission. Gottlieb shook his head at the move. “Of these three people, they had a combined total of zero days experience in transportation. It is very a complex agency and to install a set of top leaders who have no experience in that industry I think was a mistake.”

From Walker's "what  you don't know won't hurt you" Department:

The agency has not updated a key spending report, “Transportation Budget Trends,” from its last two budgets. The reports have been produced for decades. Without them, “it’s essentially impossible now to do what used to be easy to track historical and current trends in terms of revenue and expenditure by category,” Mitchell said. The (next) report will be released in July.

HEAD EXPLODING BULLSHIT: One more thing that really pisses me off; Republicans love giving back surplus revenue tax dollars, but then complain we don't have enough revenue to fund programs. Arrrrrrrrr!!!!

Walker, speaking at the Republican Party state convention Saturday, did not emphasize transportation as a key part of his re-election platform ... directing state agencies to prepare spending plans for 2019-21 with no increases in revenue... 
The move is in contrast to what Republican legislative leaders, including Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald and Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, have said: the state needs to raise more money to adequately address roads.

Some extra charts from 2013 about public spending, that has only increased since then...not in transportation:

Check out Jakes Wisconsin Funhouse for even more HERE.

Last Chance Revenue and Road Funding Solution?

Rotting Road Kill litter highways, Dept. of Transportation claims program to remove Deer carcasses is "working?"

Despite longtime rotting deer carcasses littering out state roads, the program to pick them up is "working," according to the Transportation Department.

Some vehicle-struck deer aren't getting removed from Wisconsin highways as quickly as they're being run down, as officials adjust to a new carcass pickup system. Transportation spokeswoman Becky Kikkert says contracted vendors are supposed to remove deer carcasses within two business days of a report. She says the system is working.

No Funding?: The WISC story claims there was a little confusion about what department, DNR or DOT, was responsible for removing dead deer within two days.  

A provision in the state budget transferred responsibility for picking up dead deer from the Department of Natural Resources to the Department of Transportation. The change took effect in September. Some officials said they weren't informed of the switch of responsibility for carcass removal from the DNR to the DOT.

And yet, in my recent post, "Walker now leaving rotting Car-Killed Deer on road sides, and it may get worse," Scott Walker vetoed the actual funding of road kill removal because as he put it, it would take funding away from "other priorities," It's also because he was pissed the legislature for not putting in additional dollars...from god knows where, to do the job...so believe it or not, that's where Walker and the Republican legislature have left it....

This has been Walker's dream for years, a haphazard irresponsible nothing burger, as I reported back in April 2015:

Governor Scott Walker doesn't want the state to pay to remove deer carcasses along state highways, which means counties could have to foot the bill. Last year the DNR removed nearly 24,000 deer carcasses from state highways across Wisconsin.

The Governor's proposed budget eliminates$700,000 a year for the DNR to remove the carcasses statewide. Under the proposal, responsibility for clearing the deer would fall to whatever government agency is in charge of the roadway. Or they may be left uncollected. The nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau cautions, "dead and decaying deer on the roadside are unsightly and can dampen Wisconsin's reputation as a tourist destination."

Here's the WISC report. I loved how "driver" Kimberly Engel couldn't care less about how it looks or what it'll do to Wisconsin's reputation as a tourist destination, not to mention the spread of disease:

Engel: "We live in Wisconsin, there's always road kill somewhere."

Wisconsin Tax Reform Targets "Liberal" Hybrid Owners Again!!! State bets on Gasoline!

I want to let you think about the following proposed HIKE in TAXES on hybrid and electric vehicles, that Republicans are considering in their tax reform plan for the state. Let it sink in...

Increased Fees For Hybrids And Electric Cars: Most drivers would see no vehicle registration fee increase under this plan. People who drive hybrids and electric cars would be the exceptions. Hybrid registration fees would go up by $30 per year, while electric car registration fees would go up by $125 annually. The change would generate $4.8 million in revenue in the next two-year budget.

I know, I spent hours rereading this penalty on thrifty environmentally concerned drivers, thinking there was a typo....a word left out that could change the meaning somehow...

Only state hybrid and electric car owners will be punished and made to fix the roads so many interstate drivers end up destroying.

Walker, the Back to the Future Governor: In the not too distant future, a majority of vehicles will be hybrid and EV only cars. This means the U.S. will soon fall dramatically behind market-driven auto technology. Hey, aren't we now the technology state with Foxconn?

The Netherlands and Norway have already set targets to ban fossil-fuel cars by 2025, with sales after that deadline limited to electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles. France also said on July 6 that it would ban sales of petrol and diesel vehicles by 2040 to reduce air pollution and become a carbon-neutral country by 2050. Britain made a similar announcement two weeks later.

Yet in Wisconsin, Scott Walker is betting on gas power trucks and cars. And he wants to be reelected?

Duey Stroebel's Humpty Dumptyisms on Local Control, Hybrid Tax, and White Privilege!

Wisconsin's 20th District voters are an embarrassment. First they voted for Glenn Grothman over and over and over again, and then replaced him with the mentally challenged Duey Stroebel. What in gods name were they thinking...maybe "thinking" is to strong a word here.

Duey's Humpty Dumptyisms: Defined as "The act of misusing or misinterpreting a word, phrase, or article of text to suit one's own meaning or purpose." And oh boy to we have a few Stroebel Dumptyisms today.

Duey says Local Control isn't Really ever Local Control:  Asked by a morning caller on WPR about Republicans taking away local control, Duey said he thought getting rid of a state moratorium on metallic mining (all the while not giving local communities a say over where a mine is located) was giving back local...wait, no it isn't. Also, Duey believes that if even a little state money is spent locally, Big Government Republicans can step in and call all the shots. 

Taxing Hybrids a better idea 15 years ago: Wow, kinda late on this one guys, by 10 to 15 years. Since hybrids were introduced, regular non-hybrid vehicles (41 in headline below) have improved their mileage substantially to 40 plus mpg, bringing near "equity" to all vehicles.

Here's a pretty big list of hybrid/electric cars many Wisconsinites will be force to pay...hey, they're mostly liberal anyway so who cares.

Stroebel makes the ridiculous claim hybrids don't pay a "road tax" like all other vehicles, a total fabrication. Cars and light trucks pay the same fees...hybrids are not exempt from anything.

NOTE: Walker and his band of plundering Republican pirates are perfectly fine penalizing loyal Wisconsinites with a higher fee, making us fix the roads for out of state cars and trucks driving through. This is fair? Democrats...anyone pointing this out?  

ALERT: Stroebel Shamelessly protects White Privilege. It's Political Correctness's Fault: Our Voldemort lookalike Senator thinks political correctness is unfairly picking on guys like him benefiting from white privilege. So what's wrong with Republican politicians telling the University of  Wisconsin what they can or cannot teach, especially when the truth makes them look bad?

Transportation Funding Debacle just a peek into the jumbled, confusing, unprincipled, scattershot thinking of the Republican Party in Wisconsin.

To be honest, I'm not even sure how anyone can explain the Republican legislatures schizophrenic, outrageously irresponsible in your face hypocrisy. As confusing as it may be, having it both ways is now normal GOP policy, and a "we won" reward for voters who don't seem to give a damn. Like my conservative friend in Milwaukee, who texted me the following after I mentioned the story below...

"yeah yeah who the hell knows what they're doing?"

While Republicans unashamedly grovel at the feet of Foxconn handouts...

The GOP transportation plan would fund ... more than $250 million in new state borrowing as part of Wisconsin's Foxconn bill.

....they're trying to sabotage Democratic Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett's street car project. Do Republicans hate Milwaukee so much that they'll kill the street car tourist attraction that basically runs right past the new sports arena paid for by taxpayers?

Under the GOP deal, Milwaukee could not spend any of its state transportation aid money to operate the streetcar. In addition, a City of Milwaukee tax-incremental financing district and Milwaukee County could not fund the operation of the streetcar.

...while crippling transportation upgrades in the states biggest city and business hub...

The state won't move forward with an expansion of Interstate 94 west of Milwaukee between the Marquette and Zoo interchanges, a project that many southeast Wisconsin Republicans and business leaders wanted.

...while Republicans delay major road repair/replacement projects statewide, they've decided to make things even worse...?

Allow for more overweight trucks on Wisconsin highways, which is significant because heavy trucks do considerably more damage to roads than cars. The GOP plan would let trucks weighing more than twice the legal limit travel on stretches of state highway in Ashland and Vilas counties they're carrying raw forest products and lumber. It would also allow some garbage trucks to exceed state weigh limits and extend a state law that lets agricultural vehicles exceed weight limits.

All the while turning down hiking fees on trucks, Republicans aren't afraid to attack very light electric or hybrid energy saving cars because what the heck, their owners don't vote Republican:

They will create a new $100 annual fee for electric cars and a $75 fee for hybrids.