WAUSAU, Wis. (WSAU) — A Wausau proposal to Marathon County to help fund bus service for the metro area didn’t gain the support city leaders wanted.
Wausau’s Metro Ride Transit Commission has been getting requests to expand bus service to Rothschild and Schofield, plus they’ve had rider inquiries about service to other destinations including the Rib Mountain business district. The problem is Wausau’s transit system cannot simply cross municipal boundaries without an agreement in place, and running a bus system is expensive.
The “K” route was established in 2006, but was shut down. It was revived for two years from January 2013 until this past January when Weston pulled out of the bus system. When that happened, Schofield and Rothschild couldn’t afford to continue their service.
Wausau alderman and Transit Commission member Keene Winters brought a proposal before Marathon County’s Executive Committee Wednesday. The proposal was to seek partial county funding which would both assist Schofield and Rothschild and would help leverage additional federal dollars for transportation. “The proposal included a request for $118,000 dollars from the county to match local funding for Schofield, Rothschild, and Rib Mountain to expand the bus into their area, and it seemed to meet with stiff opposition.”
Rothschild’s Village President George Peterson and Schofield’s Council President Joan Joss were at the meeting speaking in favor of the proposal.
Marathon County’s Executive Committee didn’t like the proposal. Finance and Property Committee Chairman Lee Peek says putting county tax dollars into the bus system expansion is probably not going to happen. Peek says the county, like the city, has a budget deficit problem to solve. “We’re already at a million plus, so I think almost a million and a half shortfall on the 2016 county budget. Statutorially, we’re going to get that cleaned up, but you’re talking about what… and, we’ve already added some new positions, so it’s not just the one-point-four, one-point-five million or whatever we’re in the hole, we’re also talking about new positions being added, so at the end of the day, we’re going to have to do a lot of cutting ourselves.”
Winters and the Commission believes partnering with the county can ensure service will continue. “A partnership between Marathon County and the Wausau-based Metro Ride Transit Commission is the most workable option that we have to bring in the federal and state funding, and create a stable, multijurisdictional bus system.”
Right now, Wausau cannot send it’s busses into other municipalities without a service agreement. Some states allow Regional Transit Authorities, or RTA’s, that serve as a taxing district, assessing everyone in the service district. They cannot be created in Wisconsin without the State Legislature and the Governor making some law changes. Legislators have not been interested in allowing another taxing entity.
Peek believes the county would be in a position to bring the affected municipalities together and help facilitate a solution, such as they’ve done for other issues. “Everywhere that the bus is running, I think the county can be a facilitator for bringing those parties together. We instructed the County Administrator to allocate $10,000 dollars to examine what that would look like if we could get that done.”
Winters says it’s back to the drawing board for the city’s Transit Commission. He’s not sure what can change, but Winters says riders want to go to destinations Metro Ride cannot currently take them. He also says the numbers are bad, projecting Wausau’s city bus service may end by 2020 unless funding levels change.
(Listen to our interviews on our website. Just click on these links: Keene Winters Lee Peek)
