June 6, 2023

By Lane Kimble

Spending $150 million won’t fix every rural road near farms across Wisconsin – far from it.

But the Wisconsin Farm Bureau’s Executive Director of Government Relations believes it’s a good place to start.

“Once our (farmers) can get to the highways, we’re good.  We’ve got I-94, we have Lake Michigan… we can go to Chicago… but if you ask any farmer what their largest transportation challenge is, it’s the roads right outside their farm,” Jason Mugnaini explained.

Mugnaini updated the WTBA Board of Directors during its bimonthly meeting Tuesday about where a proposed “Agricultural Road Improvement Program” (ARIP) currently stands.

Under the bill, counties and municipalities could tap into $150 million of one-time state general purpose revenue to fix roads and culverts that directly serve farmers and agricultural producers which are posted for weight.  Those postings often force farmers to drive miles out of their way.

The Farm Bureau says about 1.3 million tractor trailers of corn and about 250,000 trucks carrying soybeans travel on Wisconsin roads every year.

“So, we’re moving a ton of freight,” Mugniani said.  “[However] There’s no funding program – other than Local Road Improvement Program (LRIP) and matching funds – that townships have to fund this type of infrastructure. And it’s not being prioritized.”

WTBA Board Treasurer Dan Weinkauf asked if there was a way to quantify the need for ARIP, stressing there needs to be more funding to make a dent in the problem.

Mugnaini admitted no one knows the extent because there’s no database to track how many of these roads are in poor shape, but he thinks creating this program would naturally lead to a repository of shoddy rural roads.

The state Senate approved the ARIP measure Wednesday.  The bill has yet to pass out of the Assembly’s transportation committee.

“It’s been a long time since a nine-figure number has been able to be delivered for a unique program to rural Wisconsin and I’m hopeful that this one will make it through the process and be able to provide some real infrastructure upgrades in those rural communities,” Mugnaini told the Board.