Politics

Walker proposes boost in county road aid

Published

6 years ago

September 24, 2018

Counties are asking for it, and Gov. Scott Walker says he’s ready to deliver more road money to local governments.

Speaking to the Wisconsin Counties Association conference in La Crosse Monday, Walker said he plans to increase the state’s share of road funding to 30 per cent if he’s re-elected.

“Which would be, by far, the largest level they’ve had since the program was created in 1994,” Walker said. “It would be the largest dollar amount as well as the largest percentage they’ve had and it would be a huge boost to help counties deal with the nearly 19,000 county roads across the state of Wisconsin.”

La Crosse County has put a series of road funding options on the November ballot, to get an idea of what taxpayers would prefer paying for locally.

Those include a wheel tax and a special sales tax known as the PRAT.

County board chair Tara Johnson says she’s happy to hear Walker’s announcement.

“You know, I was taught to never look a gift horse in the mouth and we appreciate any additional money we can get,” Johnson said.

She also hopes that the extra money would continue for several years.

Brad Williams

A native of Prairie du Chien, Brad graduated from UW - La Crosse and has worked in radio news for more than 30 years, mostly in the La Crosse area. He regularly covers local courts and city and county government. Brad produces the features "Yesterday in La Crosse" and "What's Buried on Brad's Desk." He also writes the website "Triviazoids," which finds odd connections between events that happen on a certain date, and he writes and performs with the local comedy group Heart of La Crosse. Brad been featured on several national TV programs because of his memory skills.