The Great Wisconsin Pothole Tour
Media Contacts
Volunteers Tour Wisconsin to Oppose Cuts to Local Road Repair and Transit, Criticize Wasteful Highway Expansion Boondoggles
WISPIRG
Green Bay, WI – WISPIRG volunteers stopped in Green Bay today on a statewide tour to highlight the poor condition of Wisconsin’s roads and to criticize the misplaced priorities of state leaders who have voted to commit Wisconsin taxpayers to unjustified and costly highway projects while cutting funding for local road repair and transit.
“I can’t believe that we have to do this — tour the state to highlight potholes so that our state leaders get their priorities straight,” said Todd Borgen, a WISPIRG volunteer. “But we do. After all, finding axle-breaking potholes in Wisconsin isn’t hard to do. Paying to fix them is though when taxpayer money continues to be wasted on big unnecessary and unjustified highway projects.”
From Madison to Milwaukee to Stevens Point to La Crosse to Green Bay, volunteers are stopping in towns and cities along the way to hold press events at potholes that have been nominated by WISPIRG members. The volunteers are talking about the state budget proposed by Governor Walker and voted on recently by the state budget committee.
“Maintaining our roads and bridges and providing Wisconsinites good local transit options should be top transportation priorities for state leaders.” continued Borgen.
The Joint Finance Committee last week finished work on a state budget that will cut funding for local road repair and transit, while committing taxpayers to four new major highway projects that could cost taxpayers as much as $2 billion. The Committee restored some funding for local road repair that Governor Walker had cut in his original budget proposal.
Governor Walker proposed and included the four new major highway projects in his budget proposal to the state legislature. A new WISPIRG report, Building Boondoggles: Is Governor Walker Spending Billions on Four Roads to Nowhere?, found that Wisconsin taxpayers could be footing the bill to build boondoggles with these four projects. Released in May the report examined official documents and found unanswered questions, outdated justifying data, and insufficient review for the four projects.
WISPIRG recommends that state leaders reject these four projects until further review can determine whether they are needed. Most importantly, WISPIRG recommends that state leaders restore funding for local road repair and transit services – urgent and important transportation needs. Finally, WISPIRG recommends that state leaders review the transportation planning and review process to ensure that taxpayer money is not diverted to unnecessary projects in the future.
“What happened to the promise to fix potholes and rein in government spending? Governor Walker and state leaders in the legislature seem to have lost their way. WISPIRG urges citizens to join the ‘stop the pothole’ campaign and call on state leaders to restore funding for local road repair and transit, and to stop wasting taxpayer money on unnecessary highway projects,” concluded Borgen.
