November 2018 News & JFI Update  11/20/2018
Just Fix It Update
Governor-Elect Tony Evers Addresses TDA Annual Meeting Participants

There was a packed house at the TDA Annual Meeting to hear from Governor-elect Tony Evers. Participants also heard from legislative leaders and Brad Hollister, CEO of SwanLeap - a Madison-based logistics and transportation company recently named the fastest-growing U.S. company on the annual Inc. 5000 list.

In addition, TDA honored some of its own members by presenting Transportation Service Awards to the League of Wisconsin Municipalities, the Wisconsin Counties Association, the Wisconsin County Highway Association and the Wisconsin Towns Association for their outstanding work on the Just Fix It campaign. From the forums to Turnout for Transportation to the Rough Road Tours, it would not have been possible without the support of the locals.

Thanks to all who participated in this year's annual meeting.
Thanks Annual Meeting Sponsors & Supporters

Aegis Corporation

American Council of Engineering Companies of Wisconsin

EMCS, Inc.

Fabick Cat

GRAEF

HNTB Corporation

International Union of Operating Engineers, Local 139

Mead & Hunt, Inc.

Miller-Bradford & Risberg, Inc.

OMNNI Associates

Port of Green Bay

Short Elliott Hendrickson, Inc.

Wisconsin Asphalt Pavement Association

Wisconsin Concrete Pavement Association

Wisconsin County Highway Association

Wisconsin Laborers’ District Council

Wisconsin Towns Association

Wisconsin Transportation Builders Association
Former Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson Urges Bipartisan Support to Raise Gas Tax

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
November 14, 2018

During his lengthy tenure as Wisconsin governor, Tommy Thompson made it clear that he liked to build stuff. 

Buildings, bridges and roads. Especially roads
.
"I like to build things — you better believe it," Thompson said during  a Wednesday talk  at the Milwaukee Press Club. 

Now Thompson is trying to persuade the incoming governor and lawmakers to follow his legacy.

The former four-term Republican governor called on Democratic Gov.-elect Tony Evers to work with the Republican leaders of the Legislature to jointly push through a significant "revenue enhancement" to pay for improved roads.

"They should sit down and reach a compromise," Thompson said. "Let's face it — gas taxes have not been raised for a long time." Read more

Other News
Voters Once Again Show Support for Transportation Investment

Transportation Investment Advocacy Center Report:

Voters in 31 states Nov. 6 once again showed their support for transportation infrastructure investments, approving 79 percent of 352 state and local ballot measures. In the most closely watched initiative (Proposition 6), California voters turned back an effort (55 percent to 45 percent) to repeal an increase in the state gasoline and diesel motor fuels tax that had been previously approved by the legislature as part of a 2017 transportation funding law. That decision by voters will help preserve more than $50 billion for urgently-needed highway, bridge, transit improvements in California over a 10-year period.

In total, the 277 approved initiatives are expected to generate over $30 billion in one-time and recurring revenue, according to the analysis conducted by the American Road & Transportation Builders Association’s Transportation Investment Advocacy Center™ (ARTBA-TIAC).

The 2018 preliminary results reaffirmed the trend of recent years demonstrating strong voter support for investments to maintain and improve their state/local transportation networks. Including 2018, voters have approved 78 percent of nearly 1,700 transportation investment ballot measures tracked by ARTBA-TIAC since 2009. Read more
More than 54 Million Americans to Travel this Thanksgiving

AAA projects 54.3 million Americans will journey 50 miles or more away from home this Thanksgiving, a 4.8 percent increase over last year. The 2018 holiday weekend will see the highest Thanksgiving travel volume in more than a dozen years (since 2005), with 2.5 million more people taking to the nation’s roads, skies, rails and waterways compared with last year. For the 48.5 million Americans planning a Thanksgiving road trip, INRIX, a global mobility analytics company, predicts travel times in the most congested cities in the U.S. could be as much as four times longer than a normal trip.

The Thanksgiving holiday period is defined as Wednesday, November 21 to Sunday, November 25. Read entire release
Senate Passes Ballast Water Measure

The Senate recently passed a bill giving the Environmental Protection Agency the authority to set rules for ocean-going ships entering the Great Lakes and requiring the treatment of ballast water before it is released into the lakes.

According to a Journal Sentinel article, “The bill keeps many clean water protections while making it more difficult for states to enact protections that go beyond the federal measure.”

The shipping industry has long sought consistent national standards for ballast water regulation.

The measure still needs to pass the House. Read more
Association News
Allison Bussler TDA's 2018-2019 President

Allison Bussler, director of public Works for Waukesha County, was elected the Transportation Development Association’s 42nd president at the annual business meeting in Madison earlier this month. She will serve a one-year term.

Bussler has been with Waukesha County since 2003 and the county's director of public works since 2009.

She was first elected to the TDA Board in 2012 and joined the organization’s executive committee in 2016.

Other members of the 2018-19 TDA Executive Committee: 
  • 1st Vice President: Summer Strand, Walbec Group
  • 2nd Vice President: Len Shelton, International Union of Operating Engineers, Local 139
  • Secretary: Mark O'Connell, Wisconsin Counties Association
  • Treasurer: Tim Peterson, James Peterson Sons, Inc.
  • Immediate Past President: Tom Bressner, Wisconsin Agri-Business Association

Thanks to all for their service.
2019 Calendar of Events

Be on the lookout for information about 2019 event dates, including the TDA Fly-in.