GOP move on streetcar funding may have little impact

City officials not planning to use TIF or transit aid blocked in budget plan

A Republican-backed move to limit funding for Milwaukee’s streetcar in the state budget may have no effect on the project.

“It appears they’re trying to stop us from doing what we weren’t going to do anyway,” said Milwaukee Ald. Robert Bauman, a vocal streetcar supporter.

The Legislature’s budget committee signed off late Tuesday on a GOP package that would delay two massive road projects in Milwaukee County, put limits on the city’s streetcar line and impose a $75 surcharge on hybrid vehicles.

Under the package, Milwaukee could not use its tax incremental financing district to pay to operate its planned downtown streetcar line. It also could not use state transit aid to operate or build the streetcar line.

But Bauman said Wednesday that city officials weren’t planning to do so.

“I think it’s relatively inconsequential,” Bauman said. “It’s odd that this is still top-of-mind when the thing is half-built.”

Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett repeated Wednesday that the state is not funding the streetcar project, adding that city officials are still reviewing the motion.

“Despite the fact that the state is not funding the Milwaukee streetcar, there are members of the legislature who don’t like the project,” Barrett said in a statement. “We’ve asked the city attorney to review the motion that the Joint Committee on Finance passed last night, and once we have that information we will be in a better position to plan and move forward.”

On Tuesday, the City of Milwaukee also announced that it has picked a streetcar operator.

The city Department of Public Works picked an Illinois-based company, Transdev, as the operations and maintenance contractor for the Milwaukee Streetcar, according to a memo sent Tuesday by DPW Commissioner Ghassan Korban.

“We are confident that Transdev will be an excellent operator of The Milwaukee Streetcar and offers the experience and know-how needed to make the system an unqualified success,” Korban wrote in a letter to members of the Joint Committee on Downtown Streetcar Implementation.

Korban said Transdev, which is based in Lombard, Ill., is “highly experienced in starting up new systems,” including Detroit’s Q Line, and operates New Orleans’ streetcar network and 21 other fixed-rail systems around the world.

Service for the initial downtown route is expected to begin in fall 2018, and the lakefront line is expected to start operating in 2019.

The streetcar plan aims to connect the Milwaukee Intermodal Station with the city’s lower east side. The project’s capital budget is about $128 million for a 2.5-mile route, with an estimated $3.2 million annual operating and maintenance budget.