» Tolling resurfaces:

Gov. Scott Walker lays out a framework for Wisconsin’s first-ever use of tolling, saying any plan would have to bring in money from out-of-state drivers and lower gas taxes for state residents.

MADISON - Gov. Scott Walker laid out a framework Wednesday for accepting Wisconsin’s first-ever use of tolling, saying any plan would have to bring in money from out-of-state drivers and then use that money to lower gas taxes for state residents.

Republicans have fought for months over whether to raise new money for state highways. Tolling may be the only approach Walker and the other GOP leaders can all accept.

Walker’s framework provides a possible way to restart budget talks that have stalled in large part because of Republicans’ road funding squabbles.

The GOP governor said Wednesday he had privately told lawmakers that he could accept tolling if it were “limited to access points on the state line, particularly for example on the Illinois state line” where tolls are already collected across the border.

“If (Wisconsin drivers) saw some relief and the people coming out of Chicago or Rockford or elsewhere helped where they’re used to that — again I’m not promoting that — but that’s something we could live with,” Walker said.

The governor cautioned that it would take years for Wisconsin to implement tolling and start collecting money from it. That’s because it would require approval from the federal government and the installation of significant new infrastructure on state highways.

The governor and lawmakers are deeply divided on transportation, with Assembly Republicans saying Walker isn’t doing enough to keep road projects on schedule over the long haul. They want to raise taxes on gasoline to pay for highways and then offset that increase by deeply cutting income taxes,

which pay for other services such as education and health care.

Walker strongly opposes increases in gas taxes or registration fees, and GOP senators generally back the governor’s position.

This week, Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald (R-Juneau) repeated his interest in seeking federal approval for tolling to help pay for massive interstate projects in southeastern Wisconsin.

That created a possible opening in budget talks because Assembly Republicans have long pointed to tolling as a possible source of money for roads. Meeting with Milwaukee Journal Sentinel editors and reporters Wednesday, Assembly Majority Leader Jim Steineke (R-Kaukauna) and budget committee co-chairman John Nygren (R-Marinette) greeted Walker’s idea with cautious optimism.

“The conversation is good, but people coming in from Illinois, coming in from Minnesota, that’s not the entire (highway) system. So I think we need a broader base to support our transportation. I’d be willing to talk to the governor and come up with something that we think can work,” Nygren said.

It’s not clear, however, whether Walker’s vision would withstand legal scrutiny.

A 2013 review by the Congressional Research Service said the legality of tolls placed just along state borders of states was “an unsettled question” that could implicate the Constitution’s commerce clause. That provision limits states’ ability to regulate interstate business.

Border tolls have been challenged in other states under the commerce clause, said Neil Gray, director of government affairs for the International Bridge, Tunnel and Turnpike Association.

“I am not aware of any cases where this has been fully litigated through the courts system but there is a general view that such proposals would be viewed as a ‘restraint of trade,’ ” Gray said by email.

The Congressional Research Service report also noted that one set of border tolls could beget others.

“‘Toll wars’ between states are not unimaginable,” the report said.

Walker said Wednesday that new money from tolling wouldn’t have to be matched by a dollar for dollar cut in gas taxes.

But, “it would have to be some meaningful change for Wisconsin residents,” he said.

Also Wednesday, Walker backed a proposal for Wisconsin to join other states in calling for a convention to add a balanced budget amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The state Assembly will consider the proposal on June 14.

Thirty-four states are needed to call a convention for proposing amendments to the nation’s founding document. So far, 29 have done so — some of them decades ago.

Some on both the right and left are skeptical of a convention, saying delegates could vote to remove constitutional protections of free speech, gun ownership or abortion rights.

Walker said that any amendments passed at a convention would still have to be approved by three-quarters of the states, or 38.