Voters asked to decide on state transportation fund
Posted: Oct 13, 2014 7:30 PM CDT | Updated: Nov 5, 2014 4:07 PM CDT
MADISON -- On November 4th, voters will be asked to decide the fate of Wisconsin's transportation fund.
Right now money you pay to register your car, to get a license, and you pay a state tax on gas.
That money goes into a state transportation fund. It's there to pay for things like road and bridge repair.
But under current Wisconsin law, the Legislature is allowed to dip into that account, and use money for other things.
\"Between 2003 and 2011, about 1.4 billion dollars was taken out of the transportation fund to plug one time holes in the general fund.\" said Craig Thompson, Executive Director of the Wisconsin Transportation Development Association.
Thompson is a lobbyist pushing for the referendum that stops this practice.
Monday, the non-partisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau released a memo showing while money was taken from the fund between 2003 and 2011, money has been returned to the fund since.
And the memo says, the fund actually gained more than $300 million over the last 12 years.
Advocates say this referendum is about the Wisconsin Department of Transportation knowing the money will be in the fund when it's supposed to be.
So if you vote yes for this referendum, you are saying you want change things and not allow legislators to pull from the fund for other projects.
If you vote no, that means you want things to stay as they are.