Frederica Freyberg:

Highway funding, transportation costs and the DOT’s need for state money to fix, maintain and build new roadways always rises to the top of state budget priorities. The recently passed two-year state budget was no different. Though there were different ideas for funding sources, split along party lines. In the end, state funding for local transportation projects got a boost: a 10% increase or $66 million over the biennium, plus a $75 million grant program for one-time funding. Tonight we check in with the Department of Transportation Secretary-designee Craig Thompson on the issue of local transportation needs. Thanks very much for being here.

Craig Thompson:

Hi, Frederica, thanks for having me.

Frederica Freyberg:

Sure. So how far will the 10% boost and the $75 million grant program go toward helping these strapped counties and locals meet their highway needs?

Craig Thompson:

I think the way you just described it is very fair and very important. The 10% increase in general transportation aids is ongoing with ongoing revenue and I think that’s important for counties and cities and villages and towns to build a plan how they’re going to use that, where they’re going to start making repairs. The $75 million grant program is going to be helpful as well but with one-time money, this is more just for a specific improvement project. So it’s one of the reasons the governor vetoed it the way he did rather than putting the $75 million upper into a local improvement program that could not be sustained. We’re setting up a separate grant program where we can have discreet specific projects come in, demonstrate economic development and then we can make awards based on that for those specific programs.

Frederica Freyberg:

Getting back to the tie-in with Zac’s reporting, in his report, the town of Hayward says it is re-thinking the approach to road building because of rain and flood events and the damage that those cause. Is the DOT also re-thinking its approach and helping locals to do so?

Craig Thompson:

You know, this is something I was just at a convention of Midwest states, other secretaries from other DOTs, and resiliency across the entire country for DOTs is becoming a very, very important issue. And again, it’s a balancing test because we have to look at this and what’s going on with climate change and with weather events in areas like northwest, but we still have to continue to prioritize, whether it’s along critical commerce corridors, because we can’t just start engineering every area up to 100-year floods or things like that. It’s just not practical. So we have to rely on the best data, the best science and begin, but re-looking at some of these areas that have persistent issues how we deal with that.

Frederica Freyberg:

In terms of resiliency, how does Wisconsin fare compared to other states in terms of building for that?

Craig Thompson:

Well, I think we’re all largely in the same boat there. There’s some other states that have had very critical commerce corridors taken out with hurricanes and things like that. Luckily we haven’t had that to date, but I think it’s got all the states looking at this in earnest, and I do think while at the state level, we’re going to have to do good planning. Some of this is going to have to come at the federal level as well.

Frederica Freyberg:

Absolutely. In the city of Hayward, going back kind of — residents are experiencing severe flooding in part because the city is waiting until 2023 for state money to help fix a culvert. What do you say as the secretary-designee to those people who can’t not imagine waiting four years to address that one problem?

Craig Thompson:

Well, this is part of the reason that we’ve been having this conversation about transportation resources and funding in such earnest. To be honest with you, there’s other localities you could go and talk to that aren’t on any schedule right now to have some of these sorts of things replaced. I know four years seems like a long time especially if you’re in one of these areas but we’re trying to move these things up. Our state highway rehabilitation money that went into this budget has allowed us to move a lot of local projects up but there’s a lot of needs out there.

Frederica Freyberg:

As to that, what has been the statewide impact of changing climate on road building, maintenance and repair overall?

Craig Thompson:

I don’t know that any of us can give a definitive answer to that, but in your reporting and you look at what’s happened with that flooding up there, as a matter of fact. Just with the high winds recently in northwest Wisconsin, again, we just lifted — we just lifted some weight restrictions on some highways to allow them to get some of these fallen trees and timber out of there more quickly. So it is having impacts on us in a lot of different ways, and it’s something that we need to keep relying on science and updating how we’re dealing with this.

Frederica Freyberg:

What has been the impact of FEMA’s requirement that when its emergency funds are used to rebuild storm-damaged infrastructure, that it be built to prior specs?

Craig Thompson:

That is something that we talked about when I mentioned I was at this meeting with other Midwest states and at the federal level, we want to have those conversations. Is that really the best use of taxpayer dollars? If you’re dealing with an area that there’s a likelihood that this event could happen again, to spend all that money just to build it to prior specifications when that very well might — we might be rebuilding it again. I think that, again, those FEMA regulations and at the federal level, we need to be having those conversations.

Frederica Freyberg:

So can the state do anything about that, though?

Craig Thompson:

Well, I think we can weigh in. That has to do with when FEMA dollars are involved so we can affect a lot of other areas when FEMA dollars are not involved. As a matter of fact, with our structures, with our bridges and others, when they do get to end of their life and we’re rebuilding them, we used to have a 25 and 50 year for that, now we’re looking at more of a 100 year. So our proactive specs, we are trying to build some of that in in these areas and in specific areas, we can look at if there’s persistent flooding, for example, we can go back and look at that.

Frederica Freyberg:

Shifting gears with less than a minute left here, the Republican-controlled Senate has not approved a single member of Governor Evers’ cabinet. Has that affected your ability to do your job?

Craig Thompson:

It really hasn’t. To me, I look to the people at the department and just to make sure that we’re running the program effectively to just go about and do our job, and that’s what we’ve been doing. There’s no restrictions on the ability of us to be able to do that.

Frederica Freyberg:

Do you think keeping you as secretary-designee gives the Senate leverage over you or any of your decisions?

Craig Thompson:

I haven’t really felt that, and I think eventually they’ll get around to doing it but in the meantime, I think we just need to do our job.

Frederica Freyberg:

Craig Thompson, thanks very much.

Craig Thompson:

Thanks, Frederica.