by jboullion | Jan 21, 2010 | Uncategorized
From a blog post on by Andrew Weiland in the BizTimes Milwaukee:
Some of southeastern Wisconsin’s key business leaders said today that the creation of a regional transit authority to upgrade Milwaukee County’s bus system and create a Kenosha-Racine-Milwaukee (KRM) commuter rail is essential for the economic vitality of the region.
Backed by some of area’s most prominent business executives, Gov. Jim Doyle announced today new legislation to create a Southeastern Regional Transit Authority (SERTA).
The plan includes a 0.5 percent sales tax increase in Milwaukee County to provide a dedicated funding source for the county’s financially troubled bus system.
Business leaders said mass transit is needed to help people get to work and is a key amenity to attracting talented workers to southeastern Wisconsin.
“This is not a want, this is an absolute need for the community,” said Tim Sullivan, president and chief executive officer of South Milwaukee-based Bucyrus International Inc. The announcement about the RTA legislation was held at the Bucyrus headquarters.
“It’s critical that this legislation pass during the spring 2010 session,” said Robert Mariano, chairman and CEO of Milwaukee-based Roundy’s Supermarkets Inc. “It is foolish to ignore, this is an economic development issue. Transit builds the economy.”
“For the vitality of southeastern Wisconsin, getting this bill through the legislature is critical,” said Scott VanderSanden, president of AT&T Wisconsin.
“We believe regional transit and the KRM is an important investment in the future of our region,” said J. Fisk Johnson, chairman and CEO of Racine-based S.C. Johnson & Son Inc. “More efficient and more affordable public transit can help make a city an even more attractive place for business and can help the vibrancy of a community. The lack of accessibility to Milwaukee and Chicago is a big reason it is more challenging to attract key people to our company.”
“It’s really frustrating to see the constant deterioration of public transit,” said Ed Zore, CEO of Milwaukee-based Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Co. “It’s really important for business to have a good public transit system.”
About 700 of his company’s employees use public transit, Zore said.
by jboullion | Jan 20, 2010 | Uncategorized
From an article by Larry Sandler of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:
South Milwaukee – Milwaukee County could create its own transit authority, funded by a sales tax of up to a half-cent, to take over the county’s cash-strapped bus system, under proposed legislation unveiled Tuesday.
The full 0.5% sales tax would bring in about $60 million a year, or roughly $20 million more than the Milwaukee County Transit System would need to end property tax support and meet its funding needs, bus system spokeswoman Jacqueline Janz said. The new transit authority would be required to use the additional money to restore bus routes cut since 2001, to increase service or to reduce fares.
Planners have warned the bus system would face a major service cut without new state or local funding to replace property taxes.
After months of behind-the-scenes negotiations, Gov. Jim Doyle announced the plan at a news conference at Bucyrus International corporate headquarters. He was backed by the chief executive officers of some of the region’s largest corporations, who said the southeastern Wisconsin economy depends on reliable transit that isn’t funded by property taxes.
The Milwaukee County authority would be one of several temporary local transit authorities that eventually could merge into the existing Southeastern Regional Transit Authority, which oversees the planned KRM Commuter Link rail line. Like Milwaukee County, other county or municipal governments that run bus systems could form temporary transit authorities in Kenosha, Racine, Ozaukee, Washington and Waukesha counties, which would sunset if not merged into the regional agency.
Outside Milwaukee County, the local transit authorities could be funded by local vehicle registration fees, hotel taxes or property taxes contributed by local governments, but they could not impose sales taxes without voter approval in a referendum.
From an article by Stephanie Jones in the Journal Times (Racine):
[Racine Mayor John] Dickert stood with the governor Tuesday in supporting new transit legislation.
“If we as elected officials are going to rebuild our cities, we must start with a solid foundation,” Dickert said. “That foundation can begin with a regional transit system.”
by jboullion | Dec 22, 2009 | Uncategorized
From an article by Joe Potente in the Kenosha News:
A fee on rental car transactions in southeastern Wisconsin is going away — at least for a while.
The Southeastern Regional Transit Authority voted Friday not to reinstate a $2 fee that had been charged to help pay for planning of the Kenosha-Racine-Milwaukee commuter rail proposal.
That was after the new board voted narrowly to appoint Kenosha County designee Karl Ostby as its chairman.
Created by the Legislature as part of the 2009-11 state budget, the authority is enabled to levy up to $18 per rental transaction to support the local costs of KRM’s development.
Debate over fee
Maintaining the $2 fee for now was discussed, but a majority of the board favored holding off on any fee until a KRM grant plan is finalized, Antaramian said in a phone interview Friday. Antaramian said nobody on the board has shown an interest in levying the full $18.
“I think certain members of the board felt that there wasn’t a need until we actually saw a proposal,” said Antaramian, who supported continuing the $2 charge.
However, Ostby said the question of the fee is likely to arise again next month, after the authority has a clearer idea of KRM’s costs.
by jboullion | Dec 1, 2009 | Uncategorized
From an article by Larry Sandler in the Milwaukee Jounral Sentinel:
The Milwaukee area’s newest government body started work this week with the realization that it doesn’t have the power to accomplish its only mission.
In essence, the members of the Southeastern Regional Transit Authority were told that the state had put them in an impossible position, and only the state can get them out of it.
The 2009-’11 state budget created the new RTA to oversee the planned KRM Commuter Link rail line. It did not give the new body any power to fund or coordinate local bus systems.
Yet Federal Transit Administration officials have said they won’t approve the $207.5 million commuter railroad until the financial problems of the Milwaukee County Transit System and its Racine and Kenosha counterparts are solved, Ken Yunker, executive director of the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission, told RTA members.
Therefore, the RTA and the KRM will be doomed to fail without additional help from Madison, said Milwaukee County Supervisor Michael Mayo, an RTA member.
Lawmakers are working with Gov. Jim Doyle to draft new legislation that would create more transit authorities with the power to levy various taxes to support the bus systems, said Dan Kanninen, Doyle’s legislative director. Kanninen said the bill could be introduced by the end of the year, for action when the Legislature reconvenes in January.
This isn’t what Doyle wanted, Kanninen stressed. In his recommended budget, the governor proposed a single body that would oversee both the KRM and public buses in Milwaukee, Kenosha and eastern Racine counties, funded by a 0.5% sales tax.
But legislators shot down that idea in the face of heavy sales tax opposition from Racine County.
by jboullion | Nov 20, 2009 | Uncategorized
From an article by Chad Dally in The Daily Press (Ashland):
Six municipalities, one transit system and more than seven million kilowatt hours of electricity consumed.
That is one of many initial discoveries of local government officials, the Alliance for Sustainability and others through a Wisconsin Energy Independent Communities pilot project.
The Chequamegon Bay region was one of 10 communities — and the largest of the 10 — that took part in the pilot project, which in the first phase attempted to pin down a baseline assessment on energy and fuel consumption for the past three years. The initiative is one of the first steps in Wisconsin’s 25 x 25 Plan, which set a goal of generating 25 percent of the state’s energy and transportation fuel from renewable sources by 2025. Also included is the goal of securing 10 percent of the nation’s emerging bio-industry jobs within Wisconsin. Generating more alternative and renewable energy and fuel within the state and especially within the Chequamegon Bay region has huge implications, since Wisconsin spent more than $21 billion on energy in 2007.
