Gov. Scott Walker. Credit: Mike De Sisti

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Madison — Gov. Scott Walker's administration hopes to persuade policy-makers and the public to accept increased funding for roads next year by packaging the plan with broad tax cuts affecting other parts of state government.

To do so, Walker would have to overcome resistance from lawmakers who in recent years have said they want to increase transportation funding but have shot down most ideas on how to do so.

A transportation commission last year recommended increasing funding by about $640 million a year, but legislative leaders immediately rejected its proposal.

In a lengthy interview last week, Walker's transportation secretary, Mark Gottlieb, said he is mulling some of the ideas in the commission's report, and that he sees a chance to get lawmakers on board over the next year.

"It could be looked at as one component of a package that did not increase the tax burden in total," Gottlieb said.

Gottlieb — who declined to endorse raising the gas tax or other specific proposals — spoke with the Journal Sentinel a month after Walker announced he wanted to find new ways to fund transportation that could lead the nation. He has tasked Gottlieb with developing recommendations.

Walker has also said he is exploring broad tax cuts that he wants to develop for a state budget in 2015. That could include reducing income taxes or property taxes, as well as raising the sales tax to make room for cuts in other areas.

Lawmakers have rejected new funding sources for roads in recent years, but Gottlieb said they are becoming more aware of the need to invest in infrastructure.

"I detect much more willingness in general to discuss this issue because there's a growing recognition of what those needs are (for transportation)," he said.

The transportation plan would be part of the next budget, so to advance it the Republican governor would have to win re-election in November. He faces Democrat and former Trek Bicycle Corp. executive Mary Burke, who has not spelled out a transportation plan. Her campaign did not say whether she supported raising the gas tax or wanted to increase highway funding.

Republicans control the Assembly 60-39 and the Senate 18-15 and are in a good position to hold on to them in the fall election.

Funding roads with new revenue would face steep challenges. In a recent interview, Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) was cool to the idea of raising the gas tax or implementing new vehicle fees, even if they were part of a measure that reduced the overall tax burden.

Instead, Vos wants the state to start tolling on highways.

"I have consistently been a supporter of tolling," Vos said. "As people drive, they should pay. It makes perfect sense."

That, however, would require a change in federal law. Observers say Congress is unlikely in the short term to grant states such as Wisconsin the ability to use tolls the way that Illinois and some other states do. Vos said he remained optimistic Congress would give Wisconsin that power and noted he is focused on it over other revenue-generating ideas.

But Walker's transportation secretary isn't exploring tolling because the state doesn't have the ability to implement it even if it wants to do so.

Wisconsin does have the ability to put in place limited tolling on new lanes, known as "hot lanes." Under such a scenario, a highway might have two untolled lanes and one tolled lane that drivers could opt to pay to use when traffic was heavy.

Walker in the past has embraced hot lanes, but Gottlieb ruled the idea out for now because he said there are no road projects under consideration where they would be feasible. Installing the infrastructure for the tolled lanes would be costly and traffic levels would not be at a level where enough drivers would choose to use them, Gottlieb said.

Gottlieb declined to weigh in on other specific funding ideas. In its report, the commission backed raising the gas tax by 5 cents, to 37.9 cents per gallon; charging drivers 1.02 cents per mile they drive; and increasing registration fees for commercial vehicles by 73%.

The Department of Transportation will host forums around the state this spring to get the public's input on transportation revenue to help him refine his recommendations to Walker, he said.

Gottlieb is a civil engineer, former legislator and former Port Washington mayor; he has served as Walker's transportation secretary since the governor was sworn in in 2011. In that role, Gottlieb chaired the commission on transportation funding and he said he would rely on its detailed report in making recommendations to the governor.

He will be encouraging the governor to offer a plan that seeks as much revenue as the commission did — $6.8 billion over 10 years. That would add about $120 a year in costs for the driver of a typical vehicle.

Pat Goss, executive director of the Wisconsin Transportation Builders Association, said he was pleased the governor is putting a focus on road funding.

"I think the reality is the governor is absolutely right — some type of funding mechanism or means is going to be absolutely necessary in the next budget if we're going to get on top of this," he said.

Former Madison Mayor Dave Cieslewicz served on the transportation commission and supported its report, but he said he was skeptical the governor could provide as much new money for transportation as he wanted without raising taxes.

The transportation fund will start the next two-year budget cycle with a deficit of about $750 million. That is because the governor and lawmakers relied on one-time funding — much of it borrowed — to help pay for the Zoo Interchange and the north-south portion of I-94 in southeastern Wisconsin.

About $600 million more will be needed from mid-2015 to mid-2017 to pay for those two projects alone.

No one appears to view increased borrowing as a long-term solution for paying for transportation.

"You can only keep doing some of these stopgap things so many times," said Craig Thompson, who served on the funding commission and is the executive director of the Transportation Development Association.

In the past, lawmakers and then-Gov. Jim Doyle transferred more than $1 billion out of the transportation fund to help pay for schools. They used bonding to backfill much of the money so they could continue roads projects.

Republicans have stopped that practice and scheduled a referendum in November to amend the state constitution so that couldn't happen in the future.