Tap Into Infrastructure Expertise This Summer With the LWVWI. Next Up: Transit and Aviation

by Meg Gordon

Splash photo of the Mike O'Callaghan–Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge by Steve Pyle

Ever play Waterworks, the card game from the early 1970s where players race to complete a pipeline using illustrated cards and little metal wrenches while navigating leaks from pipes gone bad? Or, you lovers of logins, how about Cities: Skylines, the visually striking 2015 city-simulation video game? This one lets players build, manage and maintain infrastructure at a whole new level, bringing the tricky balancing act of roads, taxes, transit and the like into play.  

These popular nods to infrastructure make it cool. And yet, in real life, “there is complacency in how people look at infrastructure,” says civil engineer Ryan Betker, lead author of the Wisconsin Aviation section of the 2020 American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Infrastructure Report Card. “Infrastructure is mostly invisible, below the surface, and we have taken a lot of it for granted because we’ve had it for so long. It usually takes something catastrophic to get our attention.”  

Wisconsin’s infrastructure does need attention. Of the 13 infrastructure categories evaluated by ASCE professionals—aviation, bridges, dams, drinking water, energy, hazardous waste, inland waterways, ports, roads, solid waste, stormwater, transit and wastewater—only energy earned a B. Everything else earned C’s (mediocre: requires attention) or D’s (poor: at risk). Transit was given a D+ grade.

Urban or rural, young or old, we all benefit when we have quality infrastructure at our beck and call. It is central to climate resilience and repair. For example, airports mean more than the joy of getting on or off a plane. They mean jobs on site and job access elsewhere. They make our state resilient in the face of emergencies and keep our economy functioning by providing a conduit for getting life support, goods and services to Wisconsin’s dispersed population. This is true for every category. Our transit system can provide quality bus service, e-bike or scooter access and rural taxi or ride-sharing services that free us from the expense, carbon pollution, hazards, handicaps and frustrations of driving our own cars.

“Transit systems in Wisconsin are in a tough spot,” says civil engineer Kevin Muhs, Executive Director of the Southeastern Regional Planning Commission and panelist on the June 17 LWVWI forum on aviation and transit infrastructure. “And we’re out of sync with substantial investments in public transit occurring in blue and red states across the country.”

Our transit systems rely disproportionately on state funding, which was fine until the state of Wisconsin stopped increasing the funding at or above the rate of inflation about a decade ago, explains Muhs. Reductions in state shared revenue, limits on revenue sources for local governments, and limits on increasing property tax levies have combined to stymie transit systems, forcing the counties and municipalities that own them to either cut service or not expand access.

“Just about all the operating agencies are doing very good jobs with the resources they have,” explains civil engineer Robert Bryson, lead author of the Wisconsin Transit category of the 2020 ASACE Infrastructure Report Card. “The funding issues are what had a major influence on transit systems and the D+ grade assigned.”

It is our federal and state legislators who control tax dollar allocations. So political calculations loom large in their decision-making—typically thinking on a five- to six-year decision window. But the civil engineers tasked with prioritizing infrastructure need to look ahead twenty years or more, a proactive approach that can save a lot of money in the long run.

Getting the balance between fixing what is degrading and building new infrastructure for growing communities that adds to the tax base is the tricky part. So is the political wrangling. “Population centers get more, typically ,but rural areas have the same needs,” says Betker. “Whether you are a 1000-person town or one with a million-person population, water and sewer has the same meaning.”

Our federal and state legislators need to hear from us—the public—to apply pressure for making infrastructure upkeep and innovation a priority.

Become an infrastructure advocate. Why wait for catastrophe? Help usher in an era of innovation and repair with the LWVWI-ASCE-WI Summer Infrastructure Series: a set of proactive presentations that bring decision makers and taxpayers up-to-date on the condition of Wisconsin’s infrastructure and empower advocates with facts. Thursdays, from 3–5 p.m.

• May 6: Energy (recording).

• May 27: Bridges and Roads (recording).

• June 17: Transit and Aviation (registration form for the Zoom presentation).

• July 8: Inland Waterways and Ports (registration form for the Zoom presentation).

• July 29: Stormwater and Dams (registration form for the Zoom presentation).

• August 5: Drinking Water and Wastewater (registration form for the Zoom presentation).

• August 19: Hazardous Waste and Solid Waste (registration form for the Zoom presentation).

For more information on each category meeting, please visit the LWVWI Events Calendar.
If you miss a forum, you can find the recording linked to the icon for the relevant topic on this page.
Please direct questions about the LWVWI series to lwvwisconsin@lwvwi.org or 608-256-0827.

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