THE ROADS PAY THEIR OWN WAY? Wisconsin loggers would like you to think so.

From the North Woods to the croplands and dairy farms of central Wisconsin, transportation is becoming a battleground as cash-starved local governments say they can no longer afford road maintenance costs, and businesses buckling under the weight of recession say they need a dependable transportation system now more than ever.

"I've never, ever seen it to this point where it's one township right after another. All of a sudden now, they just don't have the money to do the road work," said Henry Schienebeck, a third-generation logger and executive director of the Great Lakes Timber Professionals Association in Rhinelander. He's operated logging trucks for 26 years.

Lately, Schienebeck has been hopscotching the North Woods to attend town board meetings with loggers who are pleading with local elected leaders to allow them to haul the heavy loads they say they need to turn a profit at a time when that is tougher than it's ever been.

Communities have taken to posting their roads with weight restrictions or requiring loggers to put up insurance bonds that would cover the cost of any road damage that may occur, logging interests and local elected leaders say.

"I'm a fourth-generation logger and I fight this all the time, and it's getting ridiculous," said Max Ericson, who owns a logging and trucking company in Minong and is president of the timber professionals association. "I'm getting sick of it. All I want to be able to do is do my job.

"We don't want to go around tearing up town roads, but we don't want to be out of business either," he said.

On one hand, Wisconsin officials have been diverting money from the various state transportation taxes to other uses. Money is, after all, fungible.

Since 2003, $1.2 billion has been transferred from the transportation fund. The state has borrowed about $800 million to make up for the loss, but the transportation fund faced a net drop of $434 million, according to the Legislative Fiscal Bureau.

"We feel like we're paying a lot of money into that transportation fund. We don't think the transportation fund ought to be raided every year," Schienebeck said. "That money needs to go back into the infrastructure."

Raising local property taxes to pay for roads isn't much of an option, [Town of Hull chairman Shane] Graffunder said. Many residents couldn't afford to pay them anyway.

At the margin, higher property taxes will induce out-migration. The very use of property taxes for road maintenance, however, suggests that user fees are not sufficient to provide for the road network.

On the other hand, the loggers and farmers are apparently relying on taxpayers to make private productivity gains from larger trucks possible.

Meanwhile, the equipment keeps get bigger as farmers and loggers try to achieve the economies of scale they need to turn a profit.

Logging trucks used to haul 5 or 6 cords of wood, [Town of] Boulder Junction's [chairman Jeff] Long said. Now, they're hauling 12 or 14.

Investors in railroads, which have been putting money into strengthening tracks to support heavier payloads, have cause to complain about corporate welfare for their competition, if farmers and loggers have been purchasing bigger trucks and expecting the counties to strengthen the roads.