1000 Friends of Wisconsin

Fix-it-First Myths and Facts
Myth #5

Myth #5: Spending on the Major Highway Projects program and the Revenue Bond Debt Service used to pay off Major Highway Projects has not grown out of control over the last 15 years.

Fact #5: According to WisDOT’s Transportation Budget Trends (2002), the following spending trends for the period 1988-2003 are evident (all figures were calculated from constant 2001 dollars.) Overall transportation spending increased 48.8% and spending on state highways increased by 54.5%.

Within the state highway program, Major Highway Projects spending increased by 101%. Revenue Bond Debt Service, which is not included as part of the state highway program but is used to pay off past Major Highway Projects, increased by 360% during this period.

Spending on Rehabilitation did not keep up with Major Highway Projects spending, state highway spending, or overall state transportation spending; it increased by 40%. Meanwhile, spending on Maintenance actually decreased by 3%.

Clearly, compared to the overall state transportation budget, the state highway budget, and the expenditures on Rehabilitation and Maintenance, spending on Major Highway Projects and the debt service to pay them off has grown out of control.

According to Transportation Budget Trends (2004) following the 2003-2005 state transportation budget, the state highway spending trends from 1990 to 2005 include: Major Highway Projects, up 57.15%; Rehabilitation, up 30.56%; Operations (Maintenance), down 6.36%; Revenue Bond Debt Service, up 302.82%; state highway budget, up 49.24%; and total state transportation budget, up 60.72%. These figures show a number of substantial changes from the 2002 version of Transportation Budget Trends, but the main theme of Fix-it-First holds true: spending on Maintenance and Rehabilitation has not come close to keeping up with spending on Major Highway Projects or Revenue Bond Debt Service.