Light rail on fast track

Newfound political will may finally make regional transit authority a reality

Steven Elbow  —  7/24/2008 6:01 am

After years of roadblocks, the stars are aligning for a commuter rail system in Dane County.

On Aug. 7, a state legislative study committee will begin work on drafting a bill to allow regional transit authorities -- local taxing districts that will manage and fund transit systems.

"The state legislation is really going to be the thing that sets the framework for what we can do here locally," said David Trowbridge, project manager for Transport 2020, an ambitious plan that could change the way Dane County residents get around.

State Senate President Fred Risser, D-Madison, said he expects the committee to come up with a proposal that can be introduced to the Legislature in the spring -- a fast track for any legislation, but even more so on an issue lawmakers in years past have been reluctant to embrace.

The centerpiece of the Transit 2020 plan is a light rail corridor stretching from Middleton to Sun Prairie. The rail line would connect a growing number of workers, students, sports fans and shoppers to state office buildings, cultural events, the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus, hospitals and businesses.

But it comes at a cost: $250 million for construction of the first phase of the system and $10 million in annual operating expenses.

On June 18, city and county officials, along with the state Department of Transportation, applied for funding from the federal government to help pay for the project, the first phase of which will cover a 16-mile stretch from the U.S. 12/14 interchange in Middleton, through the isthmus, then to Reiner Road on Madison's far east side, just two miles short of Sun Prairie.

U.S. Rep. Tammy Baldwin and Sens. Herb Kohl and Russ Feingold sent a letter last week to U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary Peters urging quick approval of the plan. Noting that Dane County, with more than 468,000 residents and a growth rate of 60,000 per decade, is the fastest-growing metropolitan area in the state, the lawmakers wrote that the region is "ripe for improved commute time, cleaner air, convenience and gas savings." Approval of the application would mean the federal government would pick up as much as 60 percent of the cost of building the system. The rest would be covered by a combination of state and local dollars.

One big stumbling block was cleared more than a year ago when Madison Mayor Dave Cieslewicz mended fences with Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk by dropping his plan for a trolley car system that would connect the isthmus with UW-Madison, hospitals, malls and office buildings. Falk was concerned that the cost of the trolleys would undercut funding for the commuter rail. Now, said Falk, "We have a local leaders' consensus here in our area" and "we are eager to get legislation passed for the governor to sign."

County officials have proposed a half-cent sales tax increase that would generate more than $40 million a year to help pay for the construction and operation of the system. The Dane County Board earlier this year also approved holding a referendum within a year of passing an RTA law that would gauge whether the public is willing to pay the extra half-cent tax.

The first phase of the project falls short of Transport 2020's ultimate goal to run the rail line to a station in downtown Sun Prairie, Trowbridge said. The project uses existing rail lines, but the last two miles from Reiner Road to Sun Prairie are dilapidated, and a land bridge would be needed to span swampland, at an estimated cost of $30 million to $40 million.

Still Trowbridge said serving downtown areas is a central long-term goal of the plan. But the cost of extending the system to downtown Sun Prairie could have jeopardized the federal application.

"We thought it would almost be the tipping point of our project being deemed cost-effective at this point," he said. "But we definitely see that extension to Sun Prairie in the very near term, and it's something we really want to do."

COMING up with a regional transit authority bill that everyone can accept promises to be a difficult process, one that the Legislature in years past has dodged even as surrounding states -- Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota and Michigan -- rely more and more on RTAs to keep transit systems moving in an era of skyrocketing gas prices.

The pressure to finally come up with legislation is not coming from Dane County, or even Milwaukee, where the bus system is in a freefall revenue deficits and service cuts. It's coming from the Fox Valley.

Transit systems serving both the Green Bay and Appleton areas will lose millions in federal dollars when 2010 census figures confirm they each have surpassed the 200,000 population mark. That's the point where the federal government considers a metropolitan area able to pick up more of its share of transit funding.

And because the state pools and then divvies up federal money among local transit systems, the drop in federal funds would affect all but the largest systems in the state -- at a time when transit budgets are stretched to the limit due to gas prices.

While in the past Republicans have balked at implementing another tax, the issue now transcends party politics.

"You've got just a tremendous need, and it turned it into a bipartisan need in a hurry," said Steve Hiniker, executive director of the environmental land use group 1000 Friends of Wisconsin and a member of the Transport 2020 board.

State Rep. Al Ott, R-Forest Junction, who represents the Appleton area, got involved last year, holding a series of informal meetings that drew representatives from several communities interested in forming regional transit authorities, including Dane County, La Crosse, Racine, Beloit and Milwaukee. Special interests, including real estate and road building lobbies, also sent representatives, and the group tried to come to a consensus on how the transit legislation should work.

The efforts produced a draft proposal last legislative session, but the measure died before it was even introduced as a bill.

"Where we had a unanimity from all the communities in the state at one point saying they want this RTA legislation, it just blew up," Hiniker said.

Risser, who as co-chairman of the Joint Legislative Council authorized the legislative study committee, said pressure from lawmakers across the state is growing.

"There were a number of legislators who asked that this committee be set up," he said.

The committee is designed to overcome the differences that have tanked negotiations in the past.

Ott, the chair of the committee, and state Sen. Judy Robson, D-Beloit, the vice chair, were not available for comment. But Robson aide Helen Marks Dicks said the study committee process is designed to resolve differences and get legislation passed.

"You come out of these study committees having worked through those problems and you end up with a recommendation that's supportable by everybody," she said.

But Hiniker said even if the state passes regional transit legislation, local politics could still throw a monkey wrench into the works because localities have the final say on the proposal.

For instance, while an Edgewood College survey of 262 likely Dane County voters last year showed that 65 percent of the respondents supported a regional transit authority, Waunakee, Sun Prairie, Cross Plains and Stoughton have voted to oppose one.

"I'm fairly certain there will be RTA legislation passed by the Legislature and passed into law," Hiniker said. "But after that happens it still has to come back to any community that would be part of an RTA to approve it."

Steven Elbow  —  7/24/2008 6:01 am