The Wisconsin Department of Transportation issued $126 million in funding to 1,922 villages, towns, cities, and counties on January 4 – the first quarterly general transportation aids or GTA payments for 2021 to help cover the costs of constructing, maintaining, and operating roads and streets under local jurisdiction, as well as for maintenance and traffic control of certain state highways.
[Above photo by the Wisconsin DOT.]
“These payments represent part of the cooperative work we do with local governments across the state to keep goods and services moving throughout Wisconsin,” explained Craig Thompson, Wisconsin DOT secretary-designee, in a statement.
“We are committed to investing wisely and working hard together to come up with innovative, efficient transportation solutions,” he added.
That local assistance increase is part of more than $465 million in new funding for transportation projects included in the 2019-2020 state budget – the largest dedication of new, ongoing revenue to the transportation fund in a generation, the Wisconsin DOT said.
In addition to the 10 percent GTA increase, the budget included $320 million in new funding for the State Highway Rehabilitation program and provided $90 million in one-time funding for the Local Roads Improvement Program-Supplement grant program.
For calendar year 2020, the agency said local governments received more than $505 million in GTA fiscal assistance to local municipalities to support transportation related projects; a 10 percent increase over calendar year 2019 allocations.
The Wisconsin DOT noted that it sends quarterly payments for cities, towns and villages on the first Monday in January, April, July and October. Meanwhile, the agency makes payments to counties in three installments: 25 percent of the total annual payment on the first Monday in January; 50 percent on the first Monday in July; and 25 percent on the first Monday in October.