May 8, 2026

By Lane Kimble

MADISON — Time was running short.

You don’t keep the Green Bay Packers’ Chairman Emeritus waiting in the wings for long.

That’s when inspiration struck for Steve Baas, who was looking for a way to wrap up a panel discussion on transportation at the Construction Business Group’s annual conference.

“Mark Murphy and the Packers didn’t win a Super Bowl overnight,” Baas said, gesturing to a smiling Murphy, who was standing in the back of the room. “Reaching our goal takes the same kind of commitment.”

Indeed, just as it took Murphy and former GM Ted Thompson time to develop Aaron Rodgers, draft stars like Clay Matthews, lure Charles Woodson to Green Bay, and win Super Bowl XLV, it will take a step-by-step, patient approach to fill a more than $1 billion transportation funding shortfall in Wisconsin.

“A little win here, a little free agent there, a little move here, and we’re eventually going to get there,” Baas said.

Baas was joined on his panel by WisDOT Secretary Kristina Boardman, TDA Executive Director Debby Jackson, and Wisconsin Towns Association’s Joe Ruth.  They were the final segment of the all-day conference in Madison prior to Murphy’s closing keynote address.

CBG’s conference at The Madison Club focused heavily on data center construction and energy demands in Wisconsin.

During lunch, renowned pollster Dr. Charles Franklin provided valuable insights into how people perceive data centers, AI, and construction in general, along with some must-watch state Senate and Assembly races.

The conference also brought together six of the seven Democrats polling in the race for governor for a candidate Q&A session (Francesca Hong was unable to attend due to a scheduling conflict.)

But it was Baas’ group–moderated by Walbec Group’s Brandon Strand–that dove the most into what’s at stake for fixing and maintaining our state’s critical road network.

Most importantly is finding a sustainable and reliable way to supplement a stagnant gas tax that hasn’t changed since lawmakers removed indexing in 2006.

So, moments before Mark Murphy would entertain the crowd with stories about the NFL and his father’s “Pearls of Wisdom,” Baas offered a pearl of his own:

“If you’re going to plan, if you’re going to be coherent for the longterm, you can’t do it one budget snapshot at a time.  The ball we have to keep our eye on is that feature-length film,” Baas said.  “The ‘film’ is that longterm, sustainable, sufficient thing.  We need to be obsessed with getting that outcome and big-tent on talking about mechanics.

“At the end of the day, the best (solution) is the one that can pass.”