In November of 2018, Tony Evers was elected to the position of Governor in the state of Wisconsin. With every new governor comes a new cabinet. The appointed Department of Transportation Secretary is Craig Thompson. Thompson was formerly employed by the Transportation Development Association (TDA) of Wisconsin.
Thompson has been registered as a lobbyist in the state of Wisconsin on behalf of the TDA and the Wisconsin Counties Association before that since the 2005-06 legislative session.
Previous holders of this position had been a part of the state legislature.
The question that could come up here is whether Thompson would represent the interests of Wisconsin citizens.
In her book, The Politics of Resentment, author Katherine Cramer notes some of the opinions that are held by some Wisconsin citizens about Madison and the state government. They felt that their concerns and the information that they had to offer were not valued.
“Many people perceived that their own wisdom was not book learning, but it was far more valuable and realistic. And they felt like folks from Madison ignored that kind of knowledge, even when the locals made a point to communicate their concerns,” she writes.
Secretary Thompson recently was asked to create a task force to explore transportation issues and solutions. Recently the task force recommended fixing budget issues with increased taxes, including a gas tax increase, increased vehicle registration fees, and an additional sales tax to be applied to gasoline in addition to the existing gas tax.
Looking at the current results of the task force meetings, it doesn’t seem as though any specifics of an audit conducted in 2017 that addressed possible cost savings, including implementing measures that would allow for an increasing amount of bids to be received for construction contracts were considered.
Local roads are a problem, which are the responsibilities of the municipalities, counties and cities but can be helped by the state providing funding, thus putting the decisions of who to hire and what to prioritize into local hands.
However, there are larger multi-million dollar state projects that have spanned on for years. These stay within the authority of the Department of Transportation and Secretary Thompson to administer, including deciding the contractors and timelines of these projects.
While many in Wisconsin do agree that our roads are less than optimal, will Secretary Thompson represent the citizens, and their needs or will he represent contractors and road builders that he used to lobby for.
Sources:
Cramer, Katherine “The Politics of Resentment: Rural Consciousness in Wisconsin and the Rise of Scott Walker“. The University of Chicago Press. 2016.
State of Wisconsin Department of Transportation, “Transportation Stakeholder Task Force” https://wisconsindot.gov/Pages/about-wisdot/who-we-are/comm-couns/stakeholder-taskforce.aspx
Bowden, Bridgit “For Some Wisconsin Voters, Road Quality is a Major Concern“. Wisconsin Public Radio. https://www.wpr.org/some-wisconsin-voters-road-quality-major-concern
Wisconsin Legislative Audit Bureau Reports, State Highway Program. https://legis.wisconsin.gov/lab/media/2591/17-2full.pdf
Wisconsin Ethics Commission “Who Is Lobbying?” https://lobbying.wi.gov/Who/WhoIsLobbying/2005REG
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