The Stone-Plale plan would drop both the RTA's current $2-a-vehicle car rental tax in Milwaukee, Racine and Kenosha counties and the $13-a-car tax increase that the RTA had sought to start commuter train service linking Milwaukee to its southern suburbs and to Racine and Kenosha.

Instead, most of the $13 million a year now spent on emissions testing would be used to run the trains. The rest would go into financial aid for low-income drivers to trade in their older, more pollution-producing cars for newer, cleaner-burning models produced since 1996.

All cars and light trucks produced since 1968 require emissions testing every two years in Milwaukee, Waukesha, Ozaukee, Washington, Racine, Kenosha and Sheboygan counties. With air quality improving, Gov. Jim Doyle is seeking federal approval to lift most emissions controls in the region, but state officials have said the Environmental Protection Agency would want to keep the tests.

Stone and Plale say the package is aimed at resolving two key issues: how to finance the Milwaukee County bus system and how to pay for the KRM line.

Without new state or local funding, the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission has warned, the transit system could face service cuts of 35% or more within three years.

An RTA plan to seek legislative authority for a sales tax to fund both buses and trains fell apart after Walker and others opposed it. When the RTA instead proposed a rental car tax increase for the trains alone, the Milwaukee Common Council and Milwaukee County Board voted to oppose it unless it was packaged with funding to wean the bus system off the property tax.

In the Stone-Plale plan, that bus funding would come from the vehicle sales tax shift, which Doyle has vetoed in previous incarnations.