Wisconsin’s network of rural roads connecting dairy farmers to bottling plants and cheese factories were once the pride of America’s Dairyland. Not so much today.
A recent study by TRIP, a national transportation research nonprofit, found that 17% of Wisconsin’s rural pavement was in poor condition, 14th highest among the states.
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In a March editorial, Hoard’s Dairyman blamed what it called “the big crumble” on caps in local tax rate hikes, imposed by former Gov. Scott Walker and the Legislature, that have hamstrung the budgets of counties and towns that maintain rural roads. “The roads in less densely populated rural Wisconsin generally have suffered the most,” the editorial says.
The state sprung to action. In June, Gov. Tony Evers signed a plan to direct $150 million from the state’s surplus to a new grant program for counties and towns to repair “agricultural roads.” The deteriorating pavement and weight restrictions have hampered farmers’ ability to both ship full truckloads of grain, produce and milk out and receive large shipments of feed, says Sen. Howard Marklein, the Spring Green Republican who co-authored the bill. “This increases costs for farmers and suppliers and causes bottlenecks in the food supply system,” he says.
Co-sponsor Sen. Brad Pfaff, D-Onalaska, was pleased that Democratic legislators, mostly based in the bigger cities, supported the bill. “Fewer and fewer people recognize the challenges in the day-to-day livelihoods of people who live in rural areas,” he says. “There’s an awful lot of town roads and bridges that need to be upgraded.”
