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Federal Transportation Grants May Be Cut Under Trump’s Budget

President Trump's Budget Would Eliminate TIGER Grant Program

By
Danielle Kaeding/WPR

A federal grant program that’s invested $24.5 million in recent years for projects that benefit Wisconsin communities would be cut under President Donald Trump’s budget proposal.

Regional transportation officials say the need exceeds money available through the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) grant program.

The TIGER grant program awarded $500 million for multi-jurisdictional and multi-modal transportation projects last year across the United States. Chuck Kamp, general manager of Madison Metro Transit, said they were among 585 applicants that requested around $9.3 billion in funding last year.

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“To me, that’s indicative of just the pressing need across the country for transportation infrastructure projects,” Kamp said. “We were very disappointed to hear that, and we are in communications with our federal transit administration office in Chicago as far as what they are hearing as far as replacements.”

Kamp said Madison Metro applied for a TIGER grant to fund construction of a satellite facility to house their buses. He said the garage they’re using was built to house 160 buses, but Madison Metro has around 215 buses.

“We’ve had to rent a facility for 15 of our buses, and we have overcrowding in our 160 bus-designed building. We have 200 buses in there,” Kamp said. “It’s not a sustainable situation.”

At the same time, Kamp said they’re receiving requests or interest in more peak-hour service for Verona, Deforest and Sun Prairie.

Trump’s budget proposal states such projects are usually eligible for funding under other surface transportation formula programs. However, Kamp said federal formula funding they receive only provides enough for maintenance and hasn’t kept pace with inflation.

Adele Yorde with the Duluth Seaway Port Authority said they were awarded a $10 million TIGER grant in 2013 for an $18 million dock expansion project in Duluth-Superior.

“We look both to state and federal grant dollars that we’re able to couple our own revenues with to be able renew infrastructure down here on the Clure Terminal,” Yorde said. Yorde added there are 19 other active docks in the harbor that have to replace dock walls, as well as reinvest in equipment and vessels.

“For our industry, like many others, we’re kind of waiting to see what that plays out in terms of dollars available and how those are going to be invested at the state level,” she said.

The Wisconsin Department of Transportation has also applied for TIGER funding each year for the last five years for the Wisconsin Southern Freight Rail Improvement Project. A DOT spokeswoman said the agency has not received TIGER grants for the project, which has relied on private railroad and state funding.

The Nationally Significant Freight and Highway Projects grant program is authorized to award $900 million through 2020 for projects with national or regional benefits under the 2015 FAST Act, according to Trump’s budget proposal.

Wisconsin received $14.5 million in TIGER grants over the last four years for projects in Madison and Milwaukee. Minnesota has received around $60.3 million in TIGER funding, including the $10 million grant for the dock expansion project at the Port of Duluth-Superior.