October 22, 2026
By Lane Kimble
Both candidates for governor pledge to provide more money for transportation if elected, but Tom Tiffany and David Crowley differ greatly on how to actually do that.
In their only debate before the election, Tiffany said he would oppose any fee increases, tolling, and indexing the gas tax for inflation to pay for roads. Instead, the Congressman says he would find money for transportation “via the budgeting process” while also returning Wisconsin’s $3 billion budget surplus to taxpayers.
Tiffany pointed at the massive I-94 East-West expansion project as an example of the need for more funding to keep projects on schedule.
“As governor, it is not going to take ten years. It’s not going to take eight years to finish that stretch,” Tiffany said. “We should not have transportation projects that take eight years for three-and-a-half miles and they will not when I become governor because we are going to put additional money into transportation.”
Crowley, meanwhile, said he would support user fee increases and looking at tolling but would not support indexing the gas tax. The Milwaukee County Executive called out Tiffany for not having a plan to fund transportation.
“How are you going to get the revenues when you continuously cut the amount of revenue coming into government?” Crowley said during the hour-long debate Wednesday night on WISN-TV. “We have to work with everyone when it comes down to how we’re going to fund government as a whole because we rely on it. We rely on good bridges and good roads.”
WTBA analysis shows the state faces a more than $1 billion shortfall headed into the 2027-29 budget process just to continue current projects and maintain the state’s rehabilitation and local roads programs. The Transportation Fund’s primary source of revenue–the gas tax–hasn’t changed since lawmakers froze it at 30.9 cents in 2006.
You can watch the full debate produced by WISN HERE. The portion on transportation funding begins at the 25:20 mark.
The gubernatorial election is Tuesday, Nov. 3.
