Gov. Evers touts fixing the roads, heading into Wednesday’s State of State address

Heading into this State of the State address at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers shared on Facebook what kind of money his administration is dishing out to, essentially, fix the roads.

“We made one of the largest investments in transportation in a generation through our budget. All while keeping our borrowing at the lowest level in 20 years,” Evers posted.

Watch the State of the State address here.

The governor then shared a Wisconsin Department of Transportation post that talked about how much funding has been distributed.

According to the post, local governments are getting the first of additional road funding from Evers’ 2019-2021 budget.

That first quarterly payment totals more than $132 million for General Transportation Aids (GTA). That aid enables local governments to receive state aid payments to offset the cost of county and municipal road construction, maintenance and traffic operations.

For 2020, local governments will receive about $521 million to offset transportation related projects — a 10 percent increase from the last budget.

Below is a breakdown of the GTA for the area from 2014 through 2020. To see other areas, click here, and go to any of the links labeled “Calendar Year (####) Annual Payment Summary.” For 2020, there are three breakdowns under “New Calendar Year 2020 Payments.”

From 2019 to 2020, La Crosse County saw a huge increase of $152,205.30 in the GTA. Before that, from 2018 to 2019, aid increased $13,265.51. Heading into the election year of 2018, aid increased by $78,847 from 2017 funding.

Before that, however, GTA decreased from 2016 to 2017 by $38,744 and again it fell $23,864 from 2015 to 2016 for La Crosse County.

As far as the Southwest region as a whole, GTA increased by $11,373,481.63. The numbers play out similar as above — a $9,047,238 increase from 2017 to 2018. Before that, a decrease for 2017 and just a $52,604 increase for 2016.

And, statewide, the GTA increased 45,973,300 from 2019 to 2020. Stayed the same in 2019 and 2018. But, from 2017 to 2018, the GTA grew by $40,079,400. The three years before that, it remained fairly steady around $419,650,00. But, from 2014 to 2015, it jumped about $17,100,00.

The GTA is funded by fuel taxes and vehicle registration fees.