[Reprinted from the December 8, 1995 The Capital Times. -Ed.]
By David Callender
The Capital Times
Plans to expand U.S. 12 between Middleton and Sauk City to four lanes will likely be delayed by an additional one to two years, says Transportation Secretary Charles Thompson.
As a result of Gov. Tommy Thompson's veto Wednesday of $40 million in borrowing for transportation projects over the next two years, nearly all major highway projects-- including the U.S. 12 expansion-- will have to be pushed back by as much as two years, the secretary said.
Work on the U.S. 12 project had been scheduled to begin in 1997, with completion set for 2003.
The governor, who is not related to the transportation secretary, signed the $3 billion transportation budget for the next two years after vetoing 11 items, including a portion of the transportation department's borrowing authority.
Secretary Thompson said he did not know yet which of the major highway projects scheduled for 1995-97 would be delayed be cause of the vetoes, but that he would likely have a list ready for lawmakers by the end of the month.
In response to the secretary's prediction of delays in expanding U.S. 12, one of the project's most vocal foes, Rep. Spencer Black, D-Madison, renewed his call to scale back the $63 million plan and begin a series of lower-cost safety improvements.
"It's time for the Department of Transportation to start doing things more economically rather than trying to raise taxes and spend more," he said. "One way to save money and save lives is to immediately institute safety improvements on Highway 12, rather than waiting for a grandiose freeway to be built."
Black said safety improvements to a two-lane U.S. 12 could be made for an estimated $30 million, or about half the cost of the expansion project.
"Highway 12 won't be built for a long time anyway because the federal government has major problems with the design and the environmental impact study," Black said.
The governor said he made his vetoes because the budget relied too heavily on borrowing to make up for a projected shortage in federal transportation money. As part of transportation funding cuts, Madison is losing substantial aid for its bus service.
The governor said lawmakers made a mistake by rejecting two earlier versions of the transportation budget that called for increasing wholesale gasoline taxes, which he said would have allowed the state to spend more on highway construction and road maintenance.
Republicans in the Assembly balked at two versions of the transportation budget that would have raised the state gasoline tax. Many had promised their constituents that they would refuse any tax boost.
Democrats also refused to vote for a transportation budget that raised taxes. A third budget, which increased transportation revenues through automatic gasoline tax increases but provided no new tax increases, passed the Assembly and the Senate last month.
The governor suggested that the idea of further increasing either wholesale or retail gasoline taxes was all but dead-- unless there was a massive push for the idea in the Legislature.
Rep. Ben Brancel, co-chairman of the Joint Finance Committee, said it was unlikely there would be any new proposals to raise gasoline taxes, to pay for road projects.
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