Patrick Marley | Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

MADISON - Milwaukee-area Republican lawmakers are scrambling to revive plans to rebuild I-94 between the Marquette and Zoo interchanges, just four months after their decision not to fund the project led to its demise.

Republicans who control the Legislature didn’t allocate funding for the project when they adopted the budget in the fall, leading federal authorities to threaten to pull their approval for it. That risk prompted GOP Gov. Scott Walker to abandon the project, which was expected to cost more than $1 billion.

On Thursday, Sen. Alberta Darling of River Hills and other Republicans announced plans to get the project started by putting $25 million toward it. They haven’t said how they would come up with hundreds of millions of dollars of funding for it after that.

Mike De Sisti / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

That issue — how to pay for road projects — is what stymied Republicans for months and prevented them from passing a budget on time. Darling is co-chairwoman of the Legislature’s budget committee, but she was unable to find money for the project in the two-year budget.

Walker appeared cool to the latest plan Thursday, saying he hadn’t seen Darling's bill and thought drivers in Milwaukee could use a break from construction as work on the Zoo Interchange wraps up.

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“Long term, I think it’s important to have I-94 done, but, candidly, from a lot of people in the Milwaukee area, the biggest thing I hear about transportation is they’re glad the Zoo is cleared up, they’re glad that there aren’t barrels there, they’re glad they’re not being disrupted from going, from changing lanes for a while and a lot of people would like a break going forward,” Walker said.

Wochit

But Darling said motorists and businesses need to see the stretch of highway rebuilt after the state spent billions of dollars to upgrade the Zoo and Marquette interchanges.

"I'm hearing in my area they want to get this done," Darling said. "They don't want a patch ... We need to finish what we started."

She acknowledged the legislation would be difficult to pass given that lawmakers hope to wrap up their work for the year in March and remain deeply divided on how much to spend on roads.

"That is the question of the day," she said of whether she could get the bill passed. "I don't have a crystal ball. I'm just saying we're going to give it our best shot."

The bill by Darling, Rep. Joe Sanfelippo (R-New Berlin) and Rep. Dale Kooyenga (R-Brookfield) would use savings from other transportation projects to put $25 million toward the project that — if eventually fully funded — would add a lane in each direction between 16th and 70th streets. The legislation would also ask the federal government to reinstate its approval for the project.

Assembly Minority Leader Gordon Hintz (D-Oshkosh) called the bill an "empty, last-minute proposal" that was thrown together after Walker killed the project.

"At this point, it’s hard to imagine any group with less credibility on transportation infrastructure than Wisconsin Republicans," Hintz said in a statement.

The legislation was unveiled as Walker's Department of Transportation released a report that said a group of 15 major projects would cost $22 million less than earlier estimated but that the two largest projects now underway — the Zoo Interchange and the section of I-94 that runs through Racine County — would cost $38 million more than believed six months ago.

Part of the increase is a result of state officials accounting for more development in Racine County because of plans to build a $10 billion manufacturing plant for Foxconn Technology Group.

The Zoo Interchange and north-south portion of I-94 will each cost more than $1.5 billion, according to the report.

Pat Goss, executive director of the Wisconsin Transportation Builders Association, disputed Walker's claim that drivers would get a break from construction if the state put off rebuilding the east-west portion of I-94. If that stretch of road isn't reconstructed, it will need to be resurfaced soon, he said.

"If the governor is really concerned about barrel fatigue, he needs to do the opposite of what he just said," Goss said. "Shouldn't we get out there and get it done right and not have to be out there for decades (of short-term work)?"

Also Thursday, Walker left open the possibility he would raise the gas tax to pay for roads, provided it was accompanied by a cut of the same amount or more in other taxes.

"The only way we would consider it is if there is an actual reduction in the overall tax burden in the state of Wisconsin," Walker told reporters.

Walker has taken a similar stance before, but in last year's budget fight he was more overtly opposed to raising the 32.9-cent-per-gallon gas tax. He said then he would veto a gas tax increase.

Just after the budget passed in September, Michael Davies of the Federal Highway Administration told the state his agency would revoke its approval for reconstructing the east-west part of I-94 if the state Department of Transportation could not detail a way to fund it. Walker’s transportation secretary, David Ross, responded by asking the federal agency to pull its approval, which it did.