Funding for State Road Projects Would Grow by More Than $1.5 Billion Under New Proposed Measure

Thursday, June 15th, 2023 -- 10:00 AM

(By Shawn Johnson, Wisconsin Public Radio) State funding for road projects would grow by more than $1.5 billion in Wisconsin under a measure approved late Tuesday night by Republicans on the Legislature's budget committee.

According to Shawn Johnson with Wisconsin Public Radio, a small piece of that, a little more than $3 million, would be paid for by an increased fee on electric vehicles. The GOP proposal would raise the electric vehicle fee from $100 to $175 in the upcoming budget.

The fee was first created by Republicans in 2017 at a time when former Republican Gov. Scott Walker had threatened to veto other types of revenue increases. The increased fee would account for a small portion of the state's road funding according to the Legislature's nonpartisan budget office. It would generate just $3.3 million over the next two years, a miniscule share of the overall funding increase.

But the idea provoked strong reactions from lawmakers ahead of Tuesday's vote, with Republicans framing it as a matter of fairness and Democrats warning that it would punish people who make responsible decisions about what kind of vehicle to drive.

Wisconsin's transportation system gets its state and federal funding from a variety of sources, with one of the biggest being the state's motor fuel tax. The tax on gasoline and diesel accounts for nearly half of all transportation revenue in Wisconsin. It's currently 30.9 cents per gallon.

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