Eight drafts, and a couple months later, the new regional transit authority plan for southeastern Wisconsin has been unveiled. Governor Jim Doyle introduced the new bill at a press conference at Bucyrus in South Milwaukee with Bucyrus President and CEO Tim Sullivan, Roundy’s CEO and Chairman Bob Mariano, Northwestern Mutual CEO Ed Zore, AT&T Wisconsin President Scott VanderSanden, S.C. Johnson & Son Chairman and CEO J. Fisk Johnson, Johnson Controls Chairman, President and CEO Steve Roell, Greater Milwaukee Committee President Julia Taylor, and Racine Mayor John Dickert.

When the budget finally made it to his desk, Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle used his extensive veto powers in a lot of ways. The most significant of which was arguably the line-item veto of the Milwaukee Transit Authority and the proposed 0.65% sales tax increase for Milwaukee County. Doyle did not veto SERTA, the authority which is to run the KRM commuter rail line, and the $18 rental car tax. This veto puts back on the drawing board Doyle’s proposal for a three-county sales tax to fund the KRM and bus service in Kenosha, Racine, and Milwaukee Counties, while at the same time not delaying the KRM development process.

The Wisconsin state budget is now at a point where it will go to a conference committee after the Senate approved their version of the budget yesterday. The conference committee will reconcile the difference between the Assembly and Senate versions, and send the budget off to Governor Doyle. Doyle will then use his line-item veto power on certain language he doesn’t like, and Wisconsin have a budget.

The Regional Transit Authority passed the Joint Finance Committee this morning at 2:17 a.m., but not in a very regional way. The Regional Transit Authority is now largely property of the Milwaukee County Board thanks to Pedro Colon and Lena Taylor’s amendment. The .5% sales tax is now a 1% sales tax, and Racine and Kenosha counties are out. The 1% Milwaukee County sales tax increase will also cover parks and EMS as well as transit, with no clear distinction on which piece gets which amount. Furthermore, 15% of the 1% sales tax will be distributed to the City of Milwaukee to use as they wish.

The Regional Transit Authority, a solution to Milwaukee’s transit woes that we’ve advocated before, is coming down to the wire in the halls of the state capitol.  For the plan to move forward it needs to be included in the state budget, and for that to happen it needs to be approved by the Joint [...]

When Governor Jim Doyle unveils his budget proposal later today, one thing that is likely to be included in it is the recommendations of the Southeastern Wisconsin RTA. While this certainly doesn’t mean the RTA is a done deal, it’s a large step forward towards fixing transit funding issues in the Milwaukee region.

The proposed Regional Transit Authority recommendations were on the agenda after being delayed at a previous meeting of the Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors.  At the previous meeting a task force was created and charged with putting together a positive message from the county supporting regional transportation.
Supervisor Jursik explained that despite the task force’s work [...]

The Milwaukee County Board Task Force on the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Transit Authority Recommendations, chaired by Supervisor Patricia Jursik, met for the first time on Monday December 29th, 2008. Other members of the task force present at the meeting included Supervisor Chris Larson, Supervisor John Thomas (who arrived late), Thomas Kujawa (formerly of MCTS), and Lloyd Grant (attending on behalf of Ms. Anita Gulotta-Connelly). The goal of the task force is to present recommendations to the Transportation Committee, which will then be presented to the full Milwaukee County Board on February 5th, 2009.

Colorado Railcar Manufacturing, the company slated to provide the train sets for the potential Kenosha-Racine-Milwaukee (KRM) commuter rail line, has closed its doors due to a liquidity problem. The company was the only supplier of diesel multiple unit (DMU) trains that met FRA standards to operate on the same tracks as freight trains. So the battle over a recently released (and highly-flawed in our opinion) cost report might have to be tabled at this point.

This meeting of the Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors featured the much debated resolution regarding the proposed Regional Transit Authority. Supervisors Mayo, Clark, andWeishan led the efforts to pass a resolution rejecting the RTA’s proposal. They raised concerns regarding the proposed governance structure of the RTA, and that not all of Racine would be included in the taxing area. In addition to these concerns Supervisor Clark added that she doesn’t want the RTA “take our authority away, and then took aim at the RTA’s proposed use of a sales tax funding source saying, “all of a sudden they have a novel idea.”