Vos, Fitzgerald Support Tolls to Pay For Roads
Democrats may consider but prefer gas tax indexing.
![The open road tolling lanes of the West 163rd Street toll plaza, going northbound on the Tri-State Tollway near Hazel Crest, Illinois. Photo by Mrschimpf at en.wikipedia [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) or GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)], via Wikimedia Commons.](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ee/163rd_Street_Open_Road_Tolling_Lane.jpg)
The open road tolling lanes of the West 163rd Street toll plaza, going northbound on the Tri-State Tollway near Hazel Crest, Illinois. Photo by Mrschimpf at en.wikipedia [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) or GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)], via Wikimedia Commons.
“I have become a bigger believer in the idea,” said Sen. Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, at a meeting of the Wisconsin Counties Association.
“We have the ability to toll in an awful lot of Wisconsin,” Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester told reporters afterward. “You can do it on bridges. You can do it in an awful lot of places around the state.”
But the idea never gained traction with former Republican Gov. Scott Walker, who vetoed a $2.5 million tolling study Republican lawmakers added to the last state budget. Fitzgerald said last year that study would have been the final step needed before the state could move forward with tolling.
Evers said during his campaign for governor that “all options are on the table” when it comes to road funding, including tolls, though he has not said yet what his first budget proposal will call for.
Vos and Fitzgerald both suggested they’d support another tolling study if Evers called for it, though they said they were taking a wait-and-see approach.
They also said they’d be open to passing some type of short-term road funding fix before tolling took effect, but they wouldn’t specify what they wanted.
“First I want to see what Gov. Evers is going to propose,” Vos said. “He has to make the first move.”
Vos and Assembly Republicans pushed aggressively for increasing taxes or fees for roads in the last budget debate, with Vos regularly sparring with Walker and a handful of Senate Republicans.
But Wednesday he said those inter-party arguments would be a thing of the past.
“I can promise you one thing,” Vos said. “The Assembly Republicans and the Senate Republicans are not going to fight about transportation.”
Democratic leaders said having Evers in the governor’s office could change the dynamic of the transportation debate.
“What has changed is the leadership,” said Senate Minority Leader Jennifer Shilling, D-La Crosse. “We don’t have a governor who has threatened to use his veto pen on anything that comes forward.”
Democrats have regularly supported returning Wisconsin to a system where the gas tax was increased automatically to keep pace with inflation, known as gas tax indexing.
“I mean a gas tax with indexing would certainly stop the bleeding,” said Assembly Minority Leader Gordon Hintz, D-Oshkosh. “But we’re still going to face challenges. There’s simply more to do than there are resources.”
Hintz said he could support adding toll roads if necessary but said he’d prefer the state explore other sources of funding.
Listen to the WPR report here.
As Budget Debate Looms, Fitzgerald, Vos Support Tolling was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.
The solution is quite simple. Instead of calling the money the State gets when you pump a “gas a tax”, call it a “users fee” which it actually is. The more you drive, the more you pay. The State will not have to spend millions of dollars setting up toll booths and motorists would not have to lay out money for transponders. This solution is too obvious. Republicans don’t like anything with “tax” in its title even it has specific applications for a intended use.
I agree with Richard Marx that a gas tax is a user fee; nevertheless, I think that considering tolls on some specific roads could possibly be part of a compromise. I think that a toll on I-94 from the Illinois border to Milwaukee could make some relatively easy money for road repair. I would not recommend tolling in Milwaukee or on I-94 from Milwaukee to Madison. A toll on 43 from, say, Mequon to Green Bay could help our Illinois neighbors help us repair our roads in the summers. They are accustomed to tolls, and they probably wouldn’t complain too strenuously.