STONE, PLALE URGE USE OF AUTO TEST FUNDS FOR KRM

"Nobody likes to take their car in for a procto testing every year."-- Sen. Jeff Plale, (D-South Milwaukee) discussing the unpopularity of the State of Wisconsin's federally mandated vehicle emissions testing program.

By Michael Horne
A bipartisan plan to close Wisconsin's 12 vehicle emission testing stations was announced today by Sen. Jeff Plale and his republican counterpart, Rep. Jeff Stone of Greenfield. The $13 million per year savings from eliminating the testing program in seven Southeast Wisconsin counties would be dedicated to funding the Kenosha-Racine-Milwaukee [KRM] commuter rail line, the legislators said at a 9 a.m. press conference at the Milwaukee Amtrak station.
Plale and Stone said their plan also calls to dedicate any increase in auto-related sales tax collections in Kenosha, Racine and Milwaukee counties to regional public transit, overseen by a Regional Transit Authority to be created. This would remove transit from the property tax rolls, they said.
The third element of the plan would be to direct $91 million in Federal funding to the RTA for transit-related spending in Milwaukee County. That money has been sitting idle for over a decade as political leaders debate its use.
Stone said the plans would be introduced to the legislature as an item in the state's budget. The senators were joined at the event by Rep. Jim Ott [R-Mequon], the newly elected assemblyman from the 23rd district. (It was the first time he had met Plale.) Ott said he supported the proposal since it "calls for no new taxes and no new taxing authority."
Plale said he and Stone will travel to Washington later this month to pitch their plan to the Enivronmental Protection Agency and other governmental offices.
Milwaukee is one of 90 cities on the federal government's list of "non-attainment regions" for air pollutants. Testing here began in 1984, and is performed under state contract with Envirotest, a division of Environmental Systems Products Holdings Inc., an East Granby, Conn. firm (located on Kripes Road, no less) that describes itself as "the first and the largest" vehicular testing firm. Envirotest performs nearly 12 million vehicle inspections per year at 171 facilities for 11 states and the Canadian province of British Columbia.
In Southeast Wisconsin, the firm inspects 900,000 vehicles per year, and employs 300 workers at 12 sites in the non-attainment region.
Its contract, extended in 2002, expires in 2008, and will probably have to be renewed through 2009, said Stone aide Michael Pyritz.
According to state Department of Transportation statistics, the air monitoring program has been effective, and has prevented over 40,000 tons of Carbon Monoxide from entering the atmosphere each year. CO levels exceeded federal standards 35 times between 1978 and 1984, yet not once since testing began. Authorities also say the plan has paid for itself in fuel savings alone after repairs to poorly-performing vehicles.
Stone and Plale said the program has done its job, and can be retired. The air is cleaner, Milwaukee might be able to become an attainment area, and vehicles run more cleanly nowadays, due to improvements in automotive engineering.
"Your modern cars will tell you if you have an emission problem," Plale said. (Since 1996 all vehicles have been equipped with pollution monitoring devices.) "Also, the program has never taken one vehicle off the street, since drivers can get waivers," provided a certain amount of repairs are made, he said.
If there were ever a constituent-friendly transit proposal, it would be this one. Residents of Southeast Wisconsin probably drive at least 3 million miles annually just to test their vehicles, assuming the average station is 3 miles away from the average vehicle owner. The test, although brief, is often accompanied by a wait to take the test. The state even offers live webcam coverage of testing sites for drivers to check on waiting times. Of course, while the cars are waiting, they are also likely idling, using even more gasoline, and emitting more pollutants.
Also, although the program is operated under contract, Envirotest works on a very bureaucratic schedule. Facilities are not open on Sundays, and are only open Saturdays until 1 p.m. The facilities are also closed on 10 public holidays. This puts a strain on vehicle owners who work regular hours; facilities operate from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Thursday, and close at 5 p.m. on Friday. For most people, going to the testing center also means taking time off of work, so Plale and Stone could add lost man-hours to their calculation.

DETAILS REMAIN
Stone is a member of the Joint Committee on Finance, a key waystation for any budget bill in a Legislature that is not always amenable to Milwaukee-centric projects. He says one of the beauties of his plan is, since emission testing is a strictly Southeast Wisconsin issue, its elimination and the transfer of its expense to KRM should not ruffle any political feathers outside the region. "This is not a case where we are taking something from another region and sending it to Milwaukee," he said.
Plale said negotiations would have to take place between KRM and the owners of the proposed roadway on issues like rent, and the operation of the trains. (Union Pacific staff runs that part of Illinois' Metra commuter rail that would connect with KRM.) Most of the proposed 34-mile or so KRM route is owned by Union Pacific; the only appreciable traffic on it is to the Oak Creek power plant, and this uses only a fraction of the route, he said. The northern 1-1/4 mile or so, in downtown Milwaukee, is owned by the Canadian Pacific Railway. Railroad land is tax-exempt.
-- Michael Horne