You Voted YES for Transportation

Rather, you voted “yes” to a constitutional amendment that protects Wisconsin’s highway trust fund. On November 4, voters passed this amendment by an overwhelming margin. This marks a successful end to the years’ long process required just to get the referendum on the ballot. Despite the years of work, the successful passage of this referendum will yield benefits that vastly outweigh the time it has taken to amend the state’s constitution. Perhaps most importantly it illustrates how much Wisconsin citizens value their transportation system.

Essentially, the referendum asked voters whether revenue collected from user fees (vehicle registration, gas tax, etc.) for the Transportation Fund should stay in the Transportation Fund to pay for transportation related projects. This is significant, because even through the Transportation Fund is considered a “segregated fund” it hasn’t always worked that way. In the past, money was taken out of the Transportation Fund to support the General Fund. This amendment to the constitution will provide the necessary firewall to prevent these diversions from occurring in the future.

Wisconsin's economy can't grow without a healthy transportation network. Ensuring the Integrity of the Transportation Fund will go a long way toward protecting the revenue that is collected today to fund the transportation projects in the years to come. By approving this referendum, Wisconsin has joined dozens of other states that have constitutionally protected their Transportation Funds.