When the Wisconsin state assembly's Committee on Transportation convened to hear testimony on transit bills on Thursday March 11, committee chair John Steinbrink, from the 65th district around Pleasant Prairie, noted with surprise that the packed and overflowing committee room was filled with people unanimously supporting Assembly Bill 723 or one of the closely related Regional Transit Authority bills before the committee. Nobody appeared in opposition. AB 723 would authorize the half cent sales tax requested by a referendum of Milwaukee County voters in November 2008 to fund the Milwaukee County Transit System, removing the bus lines from property tax levy support forever.
Two Greyhound buses with no empty seats left from the Amalgamated Transit Union, Local 998, union hall on North 26th Street, carrying a cross-section of Milwaukee County voters, and Rollin Pizzala, an independent truck driver running for Kenosha's 11th District city council seat. They were joined at the state capitol building by Dennis McBride, Wauwatosa's 4th District alderman, the mayors of Appleton, Kenosha, Racine, and St. Francis, among many others.
McBride recounted how he had commuted by bus from Wauwatosa to University of Wisconsin Milwaukee, then lived without need for a car in Boston, New York, and Washington, D.C. – all cities with extensive rail and bus systems – before returning home. Describing the “slow death” of the once acclaimed Milwaukee County Transit System, he firmly endorse the transit proposals before the committee, saying “I want both my home towns to thrive.”
Annie Wacker, vice president of the Milwaukee Area Labor Council advocated “Keep It Simple Stupid” (K.I.S.S.) and asserted “this is a jobs bill.” That sentiment was seconded by a series of letters from major southeastern Wisconsin employers, who are opening new jobs and can't get the workers they need without better transit access, and by Racine Mayor John Dickert that with a 17.5% unemployment rate, and new jobs opening a twenty minute drive north, there is no transit connection to get workers to those jobs. Dickert recounted that a friend had suggested “tell them to get a car,” to which he responded that unemployed people can't afford a car before beginning work.
Also on the agenda was AB 734, to authorize creation of a Fox Cities Regional Transit Authority – which was warmly endorsed by Appleton Mayor Timothy M. Hanna, a representative from the city's school board, and other from the Fox Valley. Penny Bernard Shaber, representing the 57th Assembly District, which includes most of Appleton, also participated in introducing the bill. Separate legislation for an RTA in the Eau Claire area was also considered.
An alternate plan, establishing a standard state-wide plan for any county, municipality, or group of counties or municipalities, to establish an RTA, was presented as AB 282. Many who testified, and some members of the Transportation Committee, saw problems bringing the proposal into line with the already established Southeastern Regional Transit Authority (SERTA), and the progress already made with Milwaukee voters' firm request to replace property tax revenue with a dedicated sales tax for the local bus system. Rep. Peter Barca, an author of AB 723, firmly advocated that the time to pass that legislation is now.
Milwaukee representative Tamara Grigsby, who spent six months in daily meetings to work out AB 723, after Governor Doyle foolishly vetoed the legislature's earlier provision for the dedicated sales tax funding Milwaukee voters approved, gave a spirited and factually detailed presentation for the bill, accompanied by Rep. Cory Mason, also a co-sponsor. She affirmed that the bill, with amendments Grigsby and Mason have proposed, protects taxpayers, provides extra assurance that sales tax revenue raised in Milwaukee County will remain in Milwaukee County, and the people of Milwaukee County have already voted for it. Grigsby also presented a letter from a constituent who had to move from her home of nine years because it was no longer served by the Route 14 bus, adding “If I wasn't retired, and was still working my downtown Milwaukee job, I would no longer be able to get there.”
As data presented by Milwaukee County Transit System administrators, and previously assembled by county treasurer Dan Diliberti, clearly showed, without legislative action the Milwaukee bus system could be cut be one third or forced into bankruptcy in less than a year. The property tax levy simply can't sustain it any more. ATU Local 998 Legislative Director Lamar Amos-Sikora told the committee that poring over alternatives without taking decisive action seemed to him like “the house is on fire, and you're standing around talking about whether to use this bucket of water, or that hose over there, or whether we should pray for rain.”
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