Transit Cuts in Wisconsin Making it Harder to Connect People to Jobs

"Despite growing numbers of jobs located outside of Milwaukee’s central city, many neighborhood residents continue to be unable to reach potential employers by bus," according to a post by Matthew Isla.

To sum up the problem, Isla writes: "State budget cuts have severely hampered Milwaukee County Transit System’s ability to connect city residents with outlying jobs."

Specifically, on the subject of budgets, "[the] MCTS says it has reduced bus service 14.5 percent since 2000 in response to successive rounds of state budget cuts. The most recent cut came in the 2011 biannual budget when the MCTS state appropriation was slashed by 10 percent. Although about 4 percent of the funding was restored in a later budget, MCTS is currently operating under an approximate $4.1 million shortfall in state money compared to the 2009 budget."

As for the potential that planners are regrouping to develop a more efficient system "[c]urrently there is no long-range planning taking place at MCTS to reverse trends in service cutbacks and meet the needs of job holders and job hunters for the long term."