Assembly Speaker Robin Vos keeps brakes on Milwaukee I-94 project
WEST ALLIS – The leader of the state Assembly kept the brakes on rebuilding a section of I-94 in Milwaukee on Wednesday, a day after a coalition of prominent business officials asked lawmakers to make sure the project gets done.
“The delays on the I-94 N-S in Racine County have continued for far too long," said a written statement from Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester). "We will not move forward on the East-West project unless the North-South is on track. Our state can’t afford to ignore a major section of our interstate system."
His statement underscores the challenges that the state's GOP leaders face as they try to deal with a backlog of projects and a cash-strapped transportation fund. Some, such as Vos, want to explore raising new money for roads, while others, like GOP Gov. Scott Walker, have ruled that out.
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The comments from Vos dim the possibility that Republicans who control the Legislature can revive plans to rebuild the east-west section of I-94 between the Marquette and Zoo interchanges. Business leaders on Tuesday asked top legislators to rally behind the project after Walker indefinitely shelved plans for the project, which is estimated to cost more than $1 billion.
Even if lawmakers find funding for the project, it could face delays. Civil rights and environmental groups last month filed a federal lawsuit seeking to have an expansion of public transit included in the plans to rebuild the section of I-94.
On Wednesday, transportation and education dominated a public hearing on the budget held by the Legislature's Joint Finance Committee at State Fair Park in West Allis.
Reps. John Nygren (R-Marinette) and Dale Kooyenga (R-Brookfield) expressed support for the business leaders' calls to restore funding for the East-West project. State Sen. Alberta Darling (R-River Hills) emphasized the importance of completing the Zoo Interchange, as did Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele.
But for Vos, the priority is reconstructing I-94 south of Milwaukee. That project has been stalled for years as the state focused on the Zoo Interchange.
Steve Baas, a spokesman for the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce, said the businesses focused on the East-West project agreed with Vos that the North-South project needs to be completed.
“Our advocacy for EW is in no way a suggestion that funding be cut from that or any other project,” he said by email.
He emphasized the need to prevent a bottleneck between the Marquette and Zoo interchanges.
"You can't have a state that is open for business if you have a 'road closed' sign on three miles in the middle of the primary corridor for the movement of goods and services throughout that state," he said in his email.
To try to address the issue, Vos has called for putting $300 million more toward roads over the next two years but hasn't said in detail how he wants to get that money. Walker has committed to vetoing any gas tax increase.
Democrats at the hearing said Walker and Republicans have failed to come up with a sustainable transportation funding plan to keep Wisconsin's roads from crumbling.
School funding debate
Also Wednesday, GOP legislative leaders highlighted a growing rift over Walker’s sizable funding increase for K-12 schools.
Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald (R-Juneau) said Wednesday that he expects his GOP caucus to keep that funding, even if some Republican senators don't favor that.
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“I think we can get there,” Fitzgerald said.
But Vos and Majority Leader Jim Steineke (R-Kaukauna) aren’t so sure they can.
Vos pointed out that Walker wants to overhaul the insurance program for state workers and use $60 million in projected savings to help pay for education funding. But lawmakers have threatened to remove this so-called “self-insurance” proposal from the budget because of concerns about how it would affect Wisconsin's insurance market.
“If you don’t believe in that (insurance proposal), then you can’t fund it” fully, Vos said of education.
At the hearing, Bryan Davis, the Shorewood school superintendent, said schools needed a bump in state money.
"We are now at a crossroads," Davis said. "We simply cannot meet these increasing demands with the same support of state aid we've received the last six years."
One of the most moving testimonies of the day came from Jesse Penninton-Cross, an 11-year-old girl from Glendale, who talked about her struggles with obsessive-compulsive disorder, Tourette's syndrome and anxiety disorder. She called for lawmakers to support Walker's $6 million school mental health initiative.
"Sometimes I think kids with mental health disabilities like me are like the troubled mutants in the comic books about the X-men. ... Other human beings think they're broken and scary," she said. "But professor Xavier makes a school for them and teaches them that their differences make them (heroes), not broken. ... I want to be a hero like an X-Man."
