10/2/18 – WBAY Action News 2 (Appleton)
The “Just Fix It” turnout for transportation forum in Appleton brought multiple senate and assembly candidates together from around northeast Wisconsin.
They discussed the right route for improving Wisconsin roads and infrastructure.
“We heard the most about the condition of our roads. The condition of our local roads and the condition of our state highways and interstates that’s the number one thing that we heard about,” said Craig Thompson, Executive Director of the Transportation Development Association.
A recent study by TRIP, a non-profit transportation research group, finds deteriorated or congested roads have cost drivers $6.8 billion a year state wide.
Matt Lederer, democratic candidate for Assembly District 5 says there’s agreement from both sides that something must be done, but disagreement on how to do it.
”There’s a lot of different tools that can be used and we need to look at the information as far as, will it be fees for registration, a rise in the gas tax, or will it be shifting funds around from other places,” said Lederer.
“People are ok with the gas tax going up a little bit and the reason being because they know it’s actually going for the roads,” said Rep. Paul Tittl.
Tony Evers, democratic candidate for governor, is pushing for what he calls a reasonable bipartisan solution to roads funding.
“The bottom line is except for Scott Walker, there’s republicans and democratic momentum to change our transportation system and invest in it going forward. I have said that all issues are on the table and that includes cutting things in state government,” said Evers.
What Evers lacks right now, according to republicans is specifics.
“If you don’t have specifics, you’re not going to convince a voter to vote for you and they’re not going to vote on a pie in the sky thing. I think you need to actually have some specifics,” said Rep. Tittl.