Wisconsin Senator Howard Marklein has been busy.  Not only is he a key member of Wisconsin's Joint Finance Committee, he's also been a dedicated volunteer at June Dairy Celebrations in his district!

He took time to speak with Pam Jahnke about some of the critical components of the state budget related to rural communities - including the very important Agricultural Road Improvement Program (ARIP).

The ARIP bill creates a new $150 million grant program for the improvement of agricultural roads to help ag producers and suppliers move goods to and from the farm.
 
The funding in ARIP is targeted to the first-mile roads and bridges that farmers use every day. These are the small, Class B and weight-restricted roads that connect our farms to county and state highways. Unfortunately, many of these roads are in awful condition and our small towns need financial support to maintain and improve them. This program fills this need.
 
Class B roads are the rural, country roads on which many farms are located.  Farmers, and their suppliers, must navigate these roads to move goods to and from the farm. Unfortunately, for most towns, these are low-traffic, low-priority roads, but they are very important to the farmers who live and work on them. The goal of the program is to repair these roads and small bridges so that they will no longer be weight-restricted. The ARIP bill includes prioritization criteria to ensure money is used most effectively.