WI Transportation Secretary no longer willing to try

Sometimes, when you shout from the mountain tops long enough, and no one bothers to listen, you lose your voice and have to stop shouting. That seems to be the case with Wisconsin’s Transportation Secretary. Mark Gottlieb is retiring from that post after six years of imploring for more state funding to fix our deteriorating roads. He wasn’t very successful, but it wasn’t his fault. He repeatedly warned Governor Walker and other lawmakers that without a significant infusion of money, the state’s roads would continue to worsen. In fact, he argues, that if more money isn’t found for road work, the percent of the state’s roads rated as poor would double, to 42%. But Walker continues to turn a deaf ear to the state’s road needs, relying on borrowing, and delaying a number of road projects across the state. Gottlieb has called for lawmakers to consider things like a higher gas tax, higher vehicle registration fees, even toll roads as a way to generate the needed revenue. But it appears he has given up, and who can blame him? Who would want to come to work everyday tasked with solving a problem, only to continually have your ideas rejected? With Gottlieb gone, Governor Walker can get his yes man. But that certainly doesn’t solve Wisconsin’s road woes.