Major Highway Projects Reform - AB 893

Legislative Action

In January 2004, co-chairs Roessler and Jeskewitz held a public hearing to discuss the results of the Legislative Audit Bureau report on the Major Highway Projects program.  1000 Friends of Wisconsin testified, commending the co-chairs and the Legislative Audit Bureau on their work, as well as expressing our hope that the audit serves as a first step, not an end of the process.  Building directly on the hearing and testimony of 1000 Friends of Wisconsin and others, Senator Roessler and Representative Jeskewitz introduced identical transportation reform bills in each house of the Legislature. 

AB 893, of the two companion bills, is arguably the most significant piece of transportation reform legislation in recent years because it does the following five things:

  1. It will require that the Transportation Projects Commission (TPC) receive notification that a project’s environmental impact statement or environmental assessment has been approved by the federal government before it can approve that project, thus adding increased restraint to what has been a ‘rubber stamp’ approval process.

  2. It will require WisDOT to implement a “Change Management System” to manage changes to a project’s size, scale and scope that occur during the design and construction process.

  3. It will require WisDOT to provide semi-annual reports to the TPC relating to the Change Management System, thus increasing the TPC’s ability to track and oversee Major Highway Projects.

  4. It will prohibit the Legislature from enumerating projects without TPC approval, reducing the type of political pressure on the Major Highway Projects approval process that led to four projects, with an estimated cost of $500 million, being included in the 2003-2005 budget by the Legislature after the TPC refused to approve them.

  5. It will increase the amount of information available to the public, increasing transparency and accountability.

 

Assembly Bill 893 was passed by the Senate in mid-March on the last day of the 2003-2004 Legislative Session.  1000 Friends of Wisconsin had very positive follow-up meetings with both Representative Jeskewitz and Senator Roessler to thank them for their important work, as well as to discuss other needed legislative changes.  On an invitation from the Governor’s office, 1000 Friends of Wisconsin joined Governor Doyle as he signed AB 893 into law at a press conference in Sheboygan on April 8th.

Strong First Steps

While the audit identified major problems with the Major Highway Projects program and AB 893 will lead to increased monitoring and restraint of this program, these measures are just first steps.  When it comes to transportation reform, the rubber hits the road when the state allocates funding to different programs.  1000 Friends of Wisconsin looks forward to further indications that meaningful reform is gaining momentum when the Legislature and Governor decide how to spend taxpayers’ money next spring in the 2005-2007 Budget.

1000 Friends of Wisconsin
16 N. Carroll Street, Suite 810   Madison WI 53703    608.259.1000