Doyle, WisDOT rescue Canal St. route

July 20, 2006 -- The $114,000 needed to complete three-year funding for a new Canal St. bus route will be provided by the Wisconsin Department of Transportation, Gov.Jim Doyle announced Thursday.

"It’s a simple fact that many workers depend on the bus to get to their jobs, “ Doyle said in a prepared statement. “Transit service along Canal Street is a critical component of ongoing efforts to provide current and future job opportunities in the Menomonee Valley. The state is proud to work together with private-sector partners to provide the needed financial support to allow Milwaukee County Transit System to offer this new route.”

The state already had committed $345,000 in federal funds over a three-year period. The Potawatomi Bingo Casino pledged $201,000, and the Menomonee Valley Business Improvement District, kicked in another $30,000.

The Common Council's Community and Economic Development Committee recommended the city contribute the final $114,000. The full council, however, sent the proposal back to the committee after aldermen argued the move would set a bad precedent and would allow the county to walk away from its responsibility to provide transit service. Aldermen also said the $114,000 would come from borrowed money meant to support capital projects.

The state contribution announced Thursday would replace the city money and brings the total available for the route to $690,000.

Canal St. bus route proposal sent back to committee
Aldermen blast idea of funding county bus route

July 17, 2006 -- A proposal to use borrowed city money to help pay for a Canal St. county bus route was sent back to committee this week by aldermen who blasted the idea.

The bus route route is a good idea, but financing appears to be a "potentially bad idea."

"We're essentially letting Milwaukee County off the hook or the responsibility of providing public transit, which is their responsibility," said Ald. Robert Bauman said during the council meeting on Wednesday.

"I hope this holds in committee forever and ever amen," said Ald. Jim Bohl, adding "I frankly believe this ought to be killed outright."

“Why don’t we fund parks for the county...We can find all sorts of wothy projects to fund with our city taxpayers funds,” Bohl said. "We've got enough to do here. The county shouldn't be given a free pass and neither should anyone else.

Weeds are taking over the boulevard immediately adjacent to the city's Department of Public Works building on Canal St. A lawn mower could legitimately be purchased through a capital account such as the Development Fund.

The Canal St. proposal, supported by the Department of City Development, called for the city to contributed $114,000 over three years to run the bus route. The county would kick in farebox revenue from the route, and the state, federal government and Potawatomi Bingo Casino, and Menomonee Valley would pay for the rest of the $840, 300 cost. The amount available for the route has been reduced by $38,000 since the city's Legislative Reference Bureau prepared a fiscal analysis of the project.

Both Bauman and Bohl cited concerns raised by Comptroller W. Martin Morics, who said in a letter it was bad policy to use borrowed money for operating expenses. The proposed city funding source, the Development Fund, was supposed to be used for capital costs.

"We're going to be borrowing money, in this case to pay operating expenses for another governmental unit," said Ald. Michael Murphy, who said the city has its own "crying needs."

Ald. Michael D'Amato said the measure should be killed outright. "This is an inappropriate expense from an inappropriate account," he said. "I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw it today, that the (Barrett) administration was working to bail out the county executive. The county executive has cut numerous routes around the city - some of those routes serve many, many more people than this route we're talking about now."

County Executive Scott Walker is trying to offload county functions like courts, parks, and transit on to other units of government, D'Amato said.

"People pay for it one way or another, but he doesn't have the intestinal fortitude to tell people they have to pay for it at the county level," he said.

On the west side of downtown, meanwhile, the County Board's Transportation, Public Works and Transit Committee endorsed the proposal to allow the city to pay for a county Canal St. bus route.

City may run Canal St. bus route with borrowed money
County would not contribute

July 10, 2006 -- The city would use borrowed money to help fund a Canal St. bus route, under a resolution to be considered Wednesday by the Common Council.

The state also would chip in money, as would the feds and the Menomonee Valley Partners Business Improvement District. Fare box revenue would cover the rest..

The city would pay for its $114,000 share of the three-year cost by tapping the Development Fund, borrowed money originally meant to support capital projects.

City Comptroller W. Martin Morics opposed using that fund for the bus route, but the Common Council's Community and Economic Development Committee approved the proposal on a 5-0 vote.

"The rapidly developing Menomonee Valley, with more than 10,000 jobs and more than 500 moving in this year, is the largest brownfield project in the state of Wisconsin," according to the resolution, sponsored by Ald. Robert Donovan and Ald. James Witkowiak. The road has no transit, the resolution said.

Canal St. was extended west from 25th St. to Miller Park Way and has become a convenient route for west side Milwaukee residents to either drive or bike Downtown.

The proposed bus route would loop from the Downtown Transit Center, west along W. Wisconsin Ave., south along N. 6th St., west along Canal St. to Miller Park Way and back.

The route would begin Aug. 21.

Under the proposal, the Milwaukee County Transit System would apply for a three-year federal grant to help fund the route.

The County Board's Public Works and Transit Committee is scheduled to discuss the matter Tuesday.

The total project cost iws about $878,300. About $150,300 would come from fare box revenue, $364,000 would come from the federal grant, $114,000 would come from the city, $30,000 would be provided from the Menomonee Valley Partners Business Improvement District, and $220,000 would be provided by the state.

Daily ridership is estimated at 200, according to a Legislative Research Bureau report.

The LRB analysis of the proposal notes that "Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker, in recent news articles, reported plans to reduce public bus service by eliminating and modifying many existing routes in 2007."

Walker has repeatedly said he will not raise taxes to fund services.

Comptroller Morics, in his letter, said the city's Development Fund was not intended to provide operating grants. "It is also poor financial practice to defer the payment of current operating expenditures into future years by using borrowed Development Fund proceeds," he wrote.

IRS rules will require that the city repay in a year the borrowed funds spent on the bus route.

"The expenditure circumvents the normal budget process by pre-committing the 2007 Budget to paying the total debt cost for the operating grant in one year, rather than a significantly smaller annual debt cost over a period of 15 years, as originally anticipated for a capital expenditure," he wrote.