Scott Walker, Tony Evers aren't spelling out their plans for Wisconsin roads
When it comes to roads, GOP Gov. Scott Walker and Democratic challenger Tony Evers are keeping their plans to themselves.
Walker said this week he has a transportation plan but isn’t ready to reveal it. Evers is accusing Walker of ignoring the state’s roads and says he’s willing to raise the gas tax to fix them — but won’t say by how much.
Walker is an ardent opponent of raising the gas tax, but some of his fellow Republicans have called for raising the gas tax to fix the state’s highways. The issue stalled the state budget for three months last year because of a GOP fight over how to fund roads.
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Chief among the concern for Republicans in the Assembly: the state’s rising debt load for roads.
More than 20 cents out of every dollar spent on roads goes toward paying off state debt. That’s nearly twice as much as it was when Walker was first elected in 2010.
Every dollar that is spent to pay off debt for past projects means less can be put toward new ones.
Walker hasn’t said how he would pay for roads in the next state budget if he is re-elected.
“We’re going to lay out our plan,” Walker said at a Wednesday stop in Waukesha. “It’ll be part of our budget plans going forward.”
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Evers — the state schools superintendent and winner of Tuesday's eight-way Democratic primary for governor — has said fixing the state's roads is a top priority.
He has said "everything's on the table" for finding money for roads, including increasing the gas tax or implementing tolls.
He has declined to say how much he would be willing to raise the gas tax. On Wednesday, Walker said that could mean Evers is willing to increase it by $1 per gallon, which would more than quadruple the tax of 32.9 cents per gallon.
Evers initially declined to rule out such an increase but hours later said Walker was lying about Evers' plans.
On Thursday, Evers continued to attack Walker on the condition of the state's roads.
"Our infrastructure is going to hell," he told supporters during a stop in Milwaukee.
After his speech, he declined to tell reporters how much of a gas tax increase he would consider too much.
“I have no range. My answer has consistently been all issues (are) on the table, whether it’s cutting spending, whether it’s gas tax, tolls — whatever,” Evers said. “What we do know is we can’t do what Scott Walker did and screw it up so we are 49th of 50 states. Everything is on the table — including a gas tax.”
In his speech, Evers also backed making 4-year-old kindergarten all day instead of half day. He did not elaborate on that idea.
Evers stopped in Milwaukee as part of a tour of the state with his running-mate Mandela Barnes and attorney general candidate Josh Kaul.
Their travel around the state came as the ad war in the race escalated. The state's largest business lobbying group, Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce, began airing an ad that called Evers the state's "top education bureaucrat" and said he was "squandering Wisconsin's historic investment in education" by failing to fix bad schools.
The group is spending $1.8 million on the ad, according to ad trackers for Democrats.
Two other ads that were unveiled earlier this week — one by the state Republican Party and one by a new arm of the Democratic Governors Association — also hit the airwaves Thursday.
Molly Beck of the Journal Sentinel staff contributed to this report.