Wisconsin’s 2015-17 Biennial Transportation Budget

This “highlights” document by the Wisconsin Department of Transportation’s Office of Policy, Finance and Improvement provides a fairly good summary of the transportation component of Wisconsin’s final biennial budget (Act 55). Transit Operating Aid programs are discussed on page 8. They remain in the transportation fund. The budget includes the 4% increases for transit that were allocated in the 2013-2015 budget but that obviously does not make up for the 10% cut to transit funding received in the budget before that. The Budget also creates a new Transit Safety Oversight program and insists that any fixed guideway rail system (streetcar) in Milwaukee County be paid for entirely by the City of Milwaukee.

Although all local transit systems must provide complementary transportation services to people who cannot use regular transit, there is also a separate program for “specialized transportation” (page 9). Eligibility for the Capital Assistance Program for Specialized Transportation is changed from age 55 to 65 to “meet programmatic changes to the federal program under MAP-21.”

The Complete Streets program is eliminated entirely. Although this summary does not specifically mention the term Complete Streets, the language under the Transportation Alternatives Program (TAP) section (page 10) makes it clear that it is eliminated. All State funding for TAP is eliminated completely although federal funding remains.