State budget approval next step for commuter rail

BY MICHAEL BURKE

Thursday, February 1, 2007 2:28 AM CST

Journal Times

RACINE COUNTY - With the local funding issue for commuter rail resolved, KRM's next stop on its journey toward reality will be the state budget process.

Tuesday the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Transit Authority unanimously agreed on a method for funding a commuter rail line between Kenosha and Milwaukee.

The RTA said the rail extension should be paid for by a $15 fee on car rentals. That fee would be levied once each time a vehicle is rented; it is not a daily fee.

The RTA imposed a $2 car-rental fee last summer to fund its own operations. Increasing the fee to $15 would generate an estimated $4.9 million annually from Racine, Kenosha and Milwaukee counties combined. That estimate is arrived at by extrapolating from revenue raised by the $2 car fee from last June through August.

RTA member Jody Karls, representing the city of Racine, views Tuesday's funding decision as the breakthrough that will allow KRM to become a reality. However, the state and federal governments must also do their parts.

Wednesday RTA Chairman Karl Ostby from Kenosha explained the next steps. He said the group's funding recommendation will be put to legislative and gubernatorial approval in the state budget process. The RTA will formally ask Gov. Jim Doyle to put the funding mechanism in the state budget he will introduce on Feb. 13. Passage would constitute authorization.

Doyle's budget will then go to the legislative Joint Finance Committee, so the RTA request will flow through the process with the rest of the budget.

"I feel relatively confident" about passage, Ostby said. He added that Doyle calls himself a KRM supporter.

Besides asking the state to authorize the rental fee, the RTA will ask the state for $1 million to start preliminary engineering work, Ostby said.

Existing tracks

KRM would use the existing Union Pacific Railroad track until about one mile south of the downtown Milwaukee passenger station. There it would switch to Canadian Pacific Railroad track.

Trains would run 14 round trips every weekday to stations stretching from downtown Milwaukee, through Caledonia and Racine, to Kenosha. Passengers would connect with Chicago's Metra commuter rail by changing trains at Kenosha or Waukegan, Ill.

The trains would be self-propelled diesel commuter units that are much more fuel-efficient than older trains.

The RTA must hit a June deadline to apply for a New Starts grant from the Federal Transit Authority; the hope is to land $100 million, or half of the roughly $200 million capital costs of KRM. The state budget process might go beyond that June date.

"We'll hit the June deadline one way or another," Ostby said. "We might have to say (the funding method) is pending, but I certainly hope not."

On its merits, however, he said the request seems to have an excellent chance of federal funding.

"I'm encouraged," Ostby said. "The population base in this region is probably as good a base as any of the grants that have been made."

Moreover, he added, Wisconsin historically sends much more money to Washington, D.C., than it receives. "We're trying to bring some of the money back."

Special Offer: Get 5 Weeks of the Journal Times for $7!