MADISON – Representative Hurd (R – Fall Creek) released the weekly radio address on behalf of Wisconsin Legislative Republicans.
There is a lot of good news about transportation in the state of Wisconsin. In a recently passed budget, $1.5 billion was provided in new funding for transportation. The legislature was able to increase funding by $130 million more in local road aid and $10 million more in state highway rehabilitation than what the governor had proposed, all the while bonding less by $8 million. That is a win-win, borrowing less money and doing more for transportation with the money we have.
Here are a few highlights: we provided a 2% increase each year in the general transportation aids. Although, the governor did veto that 2% increase for the small municipalities, within our small towns and villages. We did provide a 4% increase each year in the local Road improvement program and created a new program ARIP, the Agricultural Road Improvement Program, specifically for our roads serving our agricultural communities.
We funded a state highway maintenance operation, we made substantial investments in the bridge project throughout Wisconsin, and we invested in the airport improvement program, the harbor assistance program, the freight real preservation program, and the passenger rail operations assistant. We gave an increase in mass transit aid, an increase in funding for paratransit aid each year so that will help our seniors and individuals with disabilities.
Overall, we have passed a great budget for our transportation in the state of Wisconsin.
