The Legislature’s lack of action on a regional transit bill last week left transit backers in southeastern Wisconsin waiting at the station, likely at least until next year.

For now, advocates say they’re determining how they’ll proceed.

“It’s still alive,” said Kerry Thomas, executive director of Transit Now, a non-profit advocacy group. “And I think what’s happening now is people are just kind of regrouping and assessing all of the various components and the best way to go forward.”

A bill that stalled in the Legislature last week would have enabled communities in southeastern Wisconsin and elsewhere to create regional transit agencies that — with voters’ approval by referendum — could levy up to a half-cent sales tax specifically for transit.

In southeastern Wisconsin, proponents are pushing for such an arrangement to create a dedicated funding source to rescue the troubled bus system in Milwaukee County, and to bolster systems in Kenosha and Racine. Doing so would allow for transit to be removed from the property tax levy, advocates say.

Karl Ostby, chairman of an existing transit authority that was formed to shepherd development of the Kenosha-Racine-Milwaukee commuter rail line, said creating a taxing authority for buses would give the rail project a much better shot at receiving federal funding.

“I was very disappointed,” Ostby said of the Legislature’s inaction last week. “A lot of people have worked really hard trying to get that legislation in place.”

What went wrong

The bill, co-authored by Rep. Peter Barca, D-Kenosha, was pulled from the floor of the Assembly in the wee hours Wednesday morning. It was never placed on the Senate calendar for Thursday, the last day lawmakers were scheduled to convene until the next Legislature is sworn in in January.

Barca, in an interview this week, said he saw three primary barriers to getting the bill passed.

“First of all, a lot of people were nervous that even though it would still take a referendum, they still felt it might appear they were supporting the mechanism to increase the sales tax — even though people would still vote for it,” Barca said.

In the Senate, Barca said Majority Leader Russ Decker, D-Weston, made it clear he never intended to schedule it for a vote.

“And, thirdly,” Barca added, “changes of this magnitude are just never easy. People are kind of skeptical.”

What’s up next

Barring a call from Gov. Jim Doyle for a special session — which Doyle has indicated he does not plan to do — any further action on transit will not likely occur before early 2011, Barca said.

In the meantime, Barca said local transit systems will be left to be creative when forging their upcoming budgets. Barca said lawmakers are already hearing from mayors such as Racine’s John Dickert, who are stating they will have problems funding their bus systems next year.

As for KRM, Ostby said it remains uncertain whether an application for preliminary engineering funding from Washington will move forward without a state transit bill in place. Ostby said that dilemma will be the subject of discussion at the KRM authority’s next meeting in May.

Thomas said the level of support the bill received, in spite of the Legislature’s inaction, was encouraging.

“There is so much momentum and support behind this, it’s just not going to go away,” she said.