Transportation in the State Budget

Exceeding the Limit: WisDOT and Transportation Financing in Wisconsin

In spring of 2003, 1000 Friends of Wisconsin released its landmark analysis of transportation spending in Wisconsin from 1988 to 2003.   In its analysis, 1000 Friends sought to understand how the Wisconsin Department of Transportation had invested taxpayers’ resources in that period and, in turn develop a baseline for analysis of spending in the 2003-2005 state budget and other budgets in the future.  The briefing booklet itself has been acclaimed for its well-researched, readable findings that pack the punch of hard-hitting analysis, not empty rhetoric.

Among the many thought-provoking findings included in the report are:

  • If Wisconsin continues to incur debt to finance highway expansion at the same rate that it has over the last fifteen years, annual debt service payments will skyrocket from $117 million to $1.6 billion.

  • Wisconsin funds expansion work at the expense of necessary repair and maintenance – creating an unsustainable pattern that will lead to out-of-control spending and worse road conditions.

  • Wisconsin spends twice as much per capita on state highways as local roads, even though there are eight times as many miles of local roads.

The report also contains policy proposals for moving Wisconsin’s transportation system forward in a fiscally sustainable manner that ensures transparency and accountability.  Those proposals include:

  • Audit the Wisconsin Department of Transportation (Note: In November 2003, six months after Exceeding the Limit was released, an audit of the Major Highway Projects program found $381 million of waste on just seven projects.)

  • Fix-it-First

  • Repeal Gas Tax Indexing

To download a PDF of the report, click here.

1000 Friends of Wisconsin
16 N. Carroll Street, Suite 810   Madison WI 53703    608.259.1000