During the Oct. 21 gubernatorial debate, Democratic candidate David Crowley drew some attention when he said he was “open” to the idea of tolls on Wisconsin roads to pay for transportation costs.
Republican candidate Tom Tiffany said no, the state already had enough money on hand for road maintenance, and the Wisconsin GOP quickly pounced on Crowley’s comment. “David Crowley has never met a tax or fee hike he didn’t like,” WisGOP spokesperson Anika Rickard said in a statement.
But toll roads have been a longstanding issue in Wisconsin, with politicians on both sides of the aisle (including Tiffany himself) supporting them at one point or another. [WPR, WisPolitics]
Why Doesn’t Wisconsin Have Toll Roads?
Wisconsin is one of only 17 U.S. states that doesn’t have any toll roads whatsoever. A few other states, such as California and Oregon, only have tolls on a few bridge crossings, like the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco.
The reason that Wisconsin doesn’t have them? Back in the 1950s, when the federal government built interstate highways through Wisconsin, state government leaders agreed to keep the roads toll-free in exchange for federal funding. [Frommers, Wisconsin Highways]
How Does Wisconsin Pay For Roads Now?
The gas tax is the largest revenue source for the transportation fund, generating $99 million in July 2026 alone. But the state’s gas tax rate of 30.9 cents per gallon hasn’t changed in 20 years because lawmakers stopped tying it to the rate of inflation. Both Crowley and Tiffany oppose reinstating gas tax indexing.
To cover any shortfalls, the state borrows from its general fund. The nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau found that Republicans under Gov. Scott Walker’s leadership used the state’s general fund to borrow $743 million for roads and transferred another $531 million.
Under Democratic Gov. Tony Evers, the state transferred another $1.1 billion from the general fund to the transportation fund. Critics say all that borrowing and transferring makes for a very unstable funding source to maintain Wisconsin roads. [Wisconsin Watch, LFB]
How Much Would Tolls Raise?
In Wisconsin, how much toll tax revenue would raise would depend where the roads are. But in Illinois, where many Wisconsinites have their first experiences with toll roads, the state has raised $26.8 billion between 1953 and 2024.
A 2016 Wisconsin Department of Transportation study estimated that a five-cent-per-mile toll on interstate highways indexed to inflation would bring in $29 billion for the state over a 30-year period.
That’s a lot of money, and certainly has attracted some Wisconsin lawmakers on both sides of the aisle to at least consider the idea in the past. In the middle of a 2017 budget battle, the GOP-controlled Legislative Finance Committee (which Tiffany served on at the time) voted to authorize a $2.5 million feasibility study for tolling.
But Walker vetoed the spending, and the idea hasn’t been revived since. [Illinois Policy, 🔒WSJ]
Where Do We Go From Here?
Crowley also said in the debate that as governor he would be open to new transportation user fees, and would also establish a blue ribbon commission to look at long-term changes to how Wisconsin funds transportation.
Tiffany opposed user fees, and said he would use the “budgeting process” to free up more money for transportation as has been done in the past. With the state sitting on a surplus of $3 billion, it would be tempting to earmark some of that money for transportation. But once that surplus dries up, the state will be back to facing the same challenges it has for decades.
