Triple-A steps into budget fray
AAA Wisconsin regional president Tom Frymark sent a letter today to state legislators and Gov. Jim Doyle urging them to not use transportation fund cash to solve general fund deficits.
The organization claims more than 618,000 members in Wisconsin.
Frymark writes that 96 percent of AAA Wisconsin members said in a recent survey they believe revenues like fuel taxes and vehicle registration fees should be used solely for transportation purposes.
"Our members are not happy that, in the last three state budgets, $1.1 billion in transportation revenue has been mis-used to support general fund spending," Frymark writes. "It is a breach of trust between taxpayers and their government when taxes are imposed and collected for a specified purpose, but then are intentionally directed elsewhere to pay for other unrelated programs."
Gov. Jim Doyle's plan to address the projected $525 million biennial budget deficit includes a plan to transfer $257 million from the transportation fund to the general fund, and to backfill that borrowing with general obligation bonds.
The proposal was not included in the Assembly and Senate budget repair bills, and Senate Majority Leader Russ Decker, D-Weston, said last week that proposal is unlikely to be part of the final budget repair package.
"(The transportation fund) just can't be looked at as a bank to fund the rest of the budget when it gets in trouble," he said.
Labels: Budget_Repair_Bill, Transportation
