Brisco, Miller, Kraemer: Address state's transit needs in budget

Willie E. Brisco, Marilyn Miller and David Kraemer

The Wisconsin Legislature has a chance in this budget to create a transportation system for everyone in Wisconsin, including the thousands who rely on buses, argue the leaders of WISDOM, MICAH and SOPHIA in an op-ed.

Tens of thousands of people in Milwaukee and Waukesha counties don’t drive. Some have disabilities. Some are elderly. Some can’t afford a car. The state budget needs to respect transit riders, not just people who drive their cars on interstate highways.

When legislators decided to throw out Gov. Scott Walker’s transportation budget and create a new plan from scratch, they gave Wisconsin a blank slate to make meaningful reforms. We urge them to take action to create a transportation system that works for everyone in Wisconsin.

This debate has to go beyond how much revenue is needed to keep funding massive road projects across the state; more important, we should take this opportunity to re-evaluate our spending priorities and meet neglected needs, especially the needs of those whose quality of life depends on public transportation. We need a budget that ensures that people can get to available jobs and that makes sure seniors aren’t stranded in their homes.

That’s why MICAH joined the Black Health Coalition to take the Wisconsin and U.S. Departments of Transportation to court in 2012 over a billion-dollar plan to expand the Zoo Interchange without also providing transit service to the region’s non-driving population — disproportionately people of color, low-income households and people with disabilities. The resulting settlement provided temporary funding for transit routes to connect Milwaukeeans to jobs in outlying industrial parks.

Unfortunately, the state Department of Transportation seems not to have learned from this experience: Despite well-documented public opposition, the agency is seeking funding to rebuild and expand 3.5 miles of I-94 between the Zoo and Marquette interchanges for more than $1 billion, and again without making plans to improve public transit for those who don’t or can’t drive. We have again brought suit.

It’s unjust to spend billions widening highways through low-income communities in order to shave a few minutes off of suburban commute times while diverting funding away from statewide highway maintenance, local road repair and public transit that provides reliable transportation to those who need it. But it’s also a fiscally irresponsible and short-sighted policy. Years of misplaced priorities have left us with a transportation system that is prohibitively expensive to maintain while underserving too many Wisconsinites.

The state has a track record of prioritizing major projects that build new or add lanes to existing highways at the expense of other modes of transportation that on which so many Wisconsinites rely. Not only has this left communities with less money to fix their local roads, to provide public transit or to fund specialized services such as shared-ride taxis that many seniors depend on in rural parts of the region. It also has helped make the Milwaukee region one of the most segregated urban areas in the country, put middle-class supporting jobs out of reach of many and hampered economic growth.

Walker was right when he said that we should question how many new lanes of highway we really need. His proposed budget also took important steps to increase local road funding and focus on maintenance of existing infrastructure while not giving the go-ahead to new costly mega-projects such as the expansion of I-94 in Milwaukee. The results of a legislative audit earlier this year showed that these mega-projects are even more expensive than expected.

These are good places to start. Our hope is that the Legislature can do even better, remembering that Wisconsinites need better public transportation to connect to work, school and opportunities. Seniors and people with disabilities need more support for specialized transportation services that help them stay mobile. The state also has to do more to maintain existing roads and highways around the state.

Finally, legislators should resist any attempts to remove public transit from the Transportation Fund. As an increasingly critical element of our transportation system, transit should be funded by transportation dollars.

The Rev. Willie E. Brisco is president of WISDOM, Wisconsin; the Rev. Marilyn Miller is president of MICAH, Milwaukee; and the Rev. David Kraemer is president of SOPHIA, Waukesha County.