The following is the December newsletter from CASH, dealing with the new SEWERPC environmental task force and many other matters...

I am very pleased to report that the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission has agreed to establish an environmental justice task force to advise it on matters affecting low-income and minority communities. A number of groups -- including CASH (Citizens Allied for Sane Highways), the NAACP, the Black Health Coalition, the Metropolitan Milwaukee Fair Housing Coalition and the ACLU -- have been working with SEWRPC on this issue for almost two years (or maybe even longer -- you know how time flies). This is a big step forward for SEWRPC and we will continue to work to make sure the task force is a strong and valuable part of SEWRPC that the larger agency takes seriously.

If you would like to be on the task force or if you would like a member of your organization to be on it, please drop me a line or give me a call at 414-331-0724. Remember, this task force is to represent minority and low-income interests, and task force members should be able to do that.

You can find a story on the task force at the Journal Sentinel.

In a more or less related issue, the County Board voted to establish a committee to examine its relationship with SEWRPC. The committee, which will include a representative from the ACLU specifically to address environmental justice concerns, will examine both the county's political and technical dealings with SEWRPC. A big issue for Supervisor John Weishan, the main sponsor of the move to establish the committee, is that the county contributes a lot more money to support SEWRPC than any of the other six member counties kick in. He wants to make sure Milwaukee County taxpayers are getting their money's worth. We posted a couple stories on storyhill.net.

We will monitor the committee and keep you informed of its doings.

I told you some time ago that SEWRPC and CASH were going back and forth on a CASH request for records showing how SEWRPC arrived at the $675 million annual cost estimate for its 2035 regional transportation plan. SEWRPC has provided the information. I should have said that in the November or October update, but since that information was not written on a sticky attached to my computer monitor, it leaked out of my brain onto the floor. Apologies to SEWRPC--Anyone interested in the info, give a holler and I will send it on to you.

The Wisconsin Department of Transportation is moving ahead with its plans to reconstruct and probably expand North-South I-94. I attended the public information WisDOT had in Milwaukee last month -- agency staffers had a nice slide show showing, segment by segment, the changes that adding lanes would bring. In some stretches, expansion could be done within the existing right-of-way, but the freeway still would be a lot closer to the houses on one side of the freeway or both. WisDOT reps also said the agency will be doing some air monitoring to estimate air quality impacts of expansion. Much WisDOT information, including a variety of maps, is posted online.

Still unknown: where the heck would the state get the money to pay for all of this?

It is kind of depressingly amusing that a freeway project that likely will cost somewhere around $2 billion is moving ahead with very little attention paid to how to pay for it, but the proposed Kenosha-Racine-Milwaukee extension of the Metra system ($237 million in capital costs plus $1.1 million estimated annual operating costs, according to its backers) can't get past squabbling over future funding sources. This is especially troubling since an expanded freeway almost by definition will increase oil use and dependency in an age of global warming and increasing tension, war, and other violence over oil resources. Anyhow, there is a lot more information about the proposed KRM project online.

WisDOT, as we told you last month, is requesting $182 million for the I-94 North-South project in the coming two years, and another $24 million for studies related to reconstruction of the Zoo Interchange. It also wants automatic approval if WisDOT determines lane expansion is needed. We wrote to the governor expressing our many concerns about the request, particularly its emphasis on building bigger and more highways. County Supervisor Lynne DeBruin, meanwhile, has joined Ald. Michael Murphy and Mayor Tom Barrett in calling for a full environmental impact study to be done for the Zoo Interchange project. WisDOT wants to do a less expensive, less thorough environmental assessment, despite the Interchange's location in the middle of the city and its proximity to parks, schools, and medical facilities.

You may remember that WisDOT filed its budget request in November, shortly after the election and two months after the formal due date for such requests. We filed a formal request for records related to the delay, but the chief legal counsel in Gov. Doyle's Department of Administration (which includes the state budget office) denied our request.

DOA Chief Legal Counsel John Rothschild wrote:

"We are withholding budget documents and correspondence prepared by the Department of Administration for the compiling of the budget or which have been generated by the Department of Administration or by the Governor's staff or cabinet relating to the preparing of the biennial state budget."

This is very sweeping language that could make all documents related to budget preparation -- including the budget requests themselves -- beyond the reach of the public. This is a really awful precedent, and we are weighing our options.

And last but not least -- the folks at HNTB, which first was paid to help SEWRPC conclude that freeways should be expanded and now is being paid to help WisDOT decide whether those same freeways should be expanded has a problem with the Minnesota Department of Transportation. HNTB designed a major new bridge that already is cracking. Fixing it is costing millions. According to the St. Paul Pioneer Press:

MnDOT said the cracks were the result of inaccurate assumptions by designer HNTB Corp. on bridge and vehicle weight.

State officials said the cracks were not dangerous but would cut into the bridge's 100-year lifespan.

You can read the full story online.

As always, we are sending this update to one person in each member group, and relying on that person to pass it on. If other members of any group would like to be included on our mailing list, we will be happy to do that. Just let us know.

We are more than willing to talk to any group interested. Please feel free to request an in-person update or to ask us to speak with your group. You can contact me at 414-331-0724 or you can reach either CASH co-chair Bob Trimmier or me at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Thanks.

Gretchen Schuldt
Co-chair
Citizens Allied for Sane Highways