Transitsupporters had worked hard for years to find secure, dedicated funding for thecash-strapped countywide bus system, which depends on federal and state moniesplus local property taxes and fare-box revenue for its funding.
Over theobjections of Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker, in November 2008 countyvoters approved an advisory referendum to increase the sales tax 1% to coverthe costs of transit, parks, cultural assets and emergency medical services.Those entire line items in the budget would then be taken off of the propertytax rolls, providing relief to county homeowners. Furthermore, since about 30%of the sales tax collected in Milwaukee County comes fromnon-county residents, such as tourists and residents of surrounding countieswho work or play in the county, it spreads the costs to non-county residents ina fair manner.
But Milwaukee County had to gain the stateLegislature’s approval before the tax shift could be implemented.
After a seriesof fits and starts, a half-cent sales tax measure to support Milwaukee’s bus system worked its way throughthe state Legislature, but the governor vetoed it.
Legislationto create a Milwaukee County Regional Transit Authority (RTA), which wouldcollect and distribute the sales tax to MCTS, failed in April when the stateLegislature closed its doors for the year without taking a final vote on thebill.
Now, transitadvocates are asking if the system will survive and are requesting that Gov.Jim Doyle call a special session to revive the RTA bill, which would alsocreate RTAs in other parts of the state.
“There’sstill time to right this wrong,” said Harold Mester, spokesman for County BoardChair Lee Holloway.
A call toDoyle’s office seeking comment on a potential RTA special session was notreturned.
RTABill Now Includes a Re-Vote Requirement
But aspecial session on the RTA is not a magic bullet for Milwaukee’s bus system.
First, the Milwaukee delegation isnot united in supporting the measure. In Milwaukee’scaucus in the Assembly, Democrats Peggy Krusick, David Cullen and TonyStaskunas did not support the original bill, saying that the 2008 referendumdid not pass in their districts. Republicans Jeff Stone of Greendale, MarkHonadel of South Milwaukee and Leah Vukmir of Wauwatosa did not supportthe original bill, either.
And while Milwaukee’s businesscommunity championed the bill, its members and lobbyists could not persuadetheir traditional Republican supporters to vote for a sales tax increase beforean election, no matter how necessary it may be.
KerryThomas, executive director of Transit NOW, said the public’s support for masstransit was so strong that it cut across party lines, demographics andgeography.
“I don’tthink anyone’s seen this kind of support from the state and such a broadspectrum of business and labor working together, and environmentalists anddevelopers,” Thomas said.
Despite thestrong public support, many legislators were still afraid to vote for a taxshift. However, during a series of late-night votes, the Assembly finallyapproved an amendment that endorsed a transit bill that would require MilwaukeeCounty to hold a binding referendum on raising the sales tax a half-cent tosupport transit. That’s because Milwaukee County voters approvedthe 1% sales tax increase to cover a wide range of entities, and amendmentsupporters argued that the new billof the Assembly’s own makingdidn’t matchwhat county residents had voted on in 2008.
JuliaTaylor, president of the Greater Milwaukee Committee (GMC), said that herorganization did not advocate for a re-vote on the sales tax.
“Thelanguage we worked on didn’t include that,” Taylor said.
Theamendment had lukewarm support from many transit supporters.
South SideMilwaukee Rep. Christine Sinicki said she didn’t support the amendment, butwould consider it if that’s what it took to pass an RTA for Milwaukee County.
“If we couldget agreement that we could get this done with the amendment, I would probablyconsider supporting it,” Sinicki said. “But right now I don’t support itbecause I don’t think we’re going to get it done.”
Sinicki saidthe timing of the voteduring the final days of a session preceding a bigelection in the fallprobably doomed it.
“We tookthis up so late in the session,” Sinicki said. “Once you get to that point allanyone is focused on is the elections. Perhaps if we had taken it up earlier itmight have had an easier chance of getting through.”
The stateSenate doesn’t seem especially interested in taking up the RTA bill, either.Senate Majority Leader Russ Decker has said that without Republican support,the bill would not pass.
GMC’s Taylor said a special session wasn’t the only way tocreate a Milwaukee County RTA.The next governor could add it to his budget, to be approved by both houses ofthe state Legislature.
“It’s notdone,” Taylorsaid.
Killingthe KRM
The demiseof sales tax support for MCTS is also a huge setback for the proposedKenosha-Racine-Milwaukee (KRM) commuter rail line, since the Federal TransitAdministration wants to see strong, dedicated funding for local transit systemsthat would feed into the commuter rail line. The Southeastern Regional TransitAuthority (SERTA) had been approved in the last state budget, while funding forcommuter rail would come from an increase in the rental car fee, which is seenas a weak, unstable funding source for a rail system.
MilwaukeeCounty Supervisor Michael Mayo, chair of the county board’s Transportation,Public Works and Transit Committee and a member of the SERTA, said both systemsare up in the air right now.
“We have togo back to the drawing board to ask how we can serve Milwaukee Countyresidents and make sure that the [transit] system can keep going, and find outhow we can get KRM funding,” Mayo said. “And we have to talk to those who wouldnot work with us the first time to ask how we can get these votes.”
The SERTAwill meet on May 17 to discuss how to move forward with its application.
Keepingthe Buses Rolling
Unless thestate Legislature takes action and allows the county to increase the sales tax,local funding for MCTS is still on the property tax rolls. Jack Takerian,acting director of the Department of Transportation and Public Works, told the Shepherd that the administration plansto add $2.1 million in 2011 to the $19.1 million provided to MCTS in theproperty tax levy in 2010. Walker,however, has said that a $3 million increase is in the works.
Takeriansaid that it was still early in the process and that much could change beforeSeptember, when Walkerwould submit his proposed budget to the county board.
“I can’ttell you much more than that there are no planned route adjustments, no plannedfare increases,” Takerian said. “But we’ve got a long time between now and whenthe board has a chance to deliberate the budget. I can’t tell you today howthings are going to be in September.”
Also in theworks is a proposal to add Walker’s favored bus rapid transit (BRT) line, asort of express bus line within MCTS that would run along Fond du Lac Avenue,and possibly another line running to the County Grounds on the West Side.
Takeriansaid that the plan is to purchase 20 electric-hybrid buses and provideon-street amenities along the line.
BrianDranzik, administration director for the Department of Transportation andPublic Works, said the administration would submit a proposal to the countyboard to use $36 million in federal funds to establish the BRT. Those funds arethe county portion of a $91 million pot to be split between the county and thecity to improve local transit.
Dranzik saidusing all of the funds for the BRT was the “first option,” and that theadministration was trying to be flexible if the board had other plans.
He said thecounty would have to match about $6.5 million for the line.
“Traditionallywe bond for that,” Dranzik said.
Mester,Holloway’s spokesman, said comments made by Walker indicated that he may be backing offhis plan to use all of the federal funds for the BRT. Instead, Mester said, Walker may try to use aportion of those funds to purchase new buses for the traditional bus lines,which would free up funds for operating the system.
“But that’snot a long-term strategy,” Mester said.
Before Walker’s announcement about the $3 million increase,Transit NOW’s Kerry Thomas predicted that Walkerwould find some way to fund the buses for now without the RTA, which he hadopposed.
“I think hewants to show that we don’t need an RTA,” Thomas said. “He wants to show thatit isn’t necessary to have this funding for buses.”%uFFFD
FranMcLaughlin, Walker’sspokeswoman, did not return a call seeking comment for this article.
