ACLU WISCONSIN URGES GOVERNOR TO VETO
DISCRIMINATORY HIGHWAY EXPANSION FUNDING

JULY 13, 2005

The ACLU of Wisconsin urges the Governor to veto $38 million for highway expansion that the legislature stuck in the budget bill. The legislature wants this money used for preliminary engineering on the Zoo interchange expansion – including 21 miles of expansion of Hwy. 45 - even though reconstruction of this segment wouldn’t begin for a decade.

“The state is running a deficit,” noted ACLU of Wisconsin Executive Director Chris Ahmuty. “It makes no sense to force DOT to do preliminary engineering now when changes could well occur over the next decade, so they could end up having to do it over again.”

The ACLU is even more concerned about the legislature’s lack of concerned for a balanced, rational transportation policy in Southeastern Wisconsin. The sudden availability of funds for this highway project raises questions of environmental justice and racial discrimination. “While the legislature wants to pour almost $40 million into more highway work, Milwaukee County’s public transit system is starved for funds, raising fares, and cutting back services,” Ahmuty stated. “As numerous studies have shown, a high percentage of the area’s poor and minority population don’t have cars or drivers licenses, and they don’t benefit from more highway construction expenditures.”

The ACLU of Wisconsin believes that a veto of this item is not only fiscally prudent and sensible from a regional transportation planning standpoint, but will also help maintain some balance between highway and public transit spending. It would also help the state avoid sending a message to residents of Milwaukee’s inner city that their transportation needs are of lesser concern than those of the outer suburbs.

The ACLU of Wisconsin’s letter to Governor Doyle requesting a veto is attached.

Letter to Doyle

Press Release