Contact: Stuart Ewy, 608.266.8535
Madison – Today State Senator Tim Carpenter (D-Milwaukee) released the following statement calling on Governor Walker and Republican leadership to take ownership of the problems with our infrastructure and to take steps to fix it instead of kicking it down the road again into the next budget cycle.
“After the disasters uncovered by the recent audit of the Department of Transportation highway program, it is increasingly apparent that Governor Walker keeps hoping the problem of transportation funding will just go away if they delay long enough.
Wisconsin needs a viable transportation funding plan to fix our broken infrastructure. Governor Walker has been in office for over six years and his lack of leadership by delaying making tough and responsible choices have only made matters worse.
The last several decades have shown that delay means inflation will drastically increase the cost of construction. Delay will only increase the costs to individuals and businesses who must repair vehicles from potholes due to ill-repaired roads.
Delay means loss of time for Wisconsin drivers and businesses will suffer lost productivity due to waiting in traffic. Delay will scare away businesses who want to locate near reliable transportation systems like expressways to economically transport goods. Delay damages our billion dollar tourist industry.
Governor Walker’s ‘Delay’ is not a solution; it is an exacerbation of the problem. The problem needs to be fixed, and not just kicked down the road again to the next budget cycle.”
Delay may satisfy Governor Walker’s own presidential political ambitions, but the cost we all suffer for it will be a crumbling and third world transportation infrastructure.
Senator Carpenter’s press releases are available for review at http://legis.wisconsin.gov/senate/carpenter/PressReleases/
