A former mayor of New Orleans spent some time in another Mississippi River city on Wednesday, checking out the La Crosse mass transit system.

Mitch Landrieu, co-chair of President Joe Biden’s re-election campaign, was given a tour of MTU facilities on Isle La Plume — inspecting the electric busses, used by the city.

MTU director Adam Lorentz (left) speaks with Biden campaign official Mitch Landrieu (center) and La Crosse Mayor Mitch Reynolds inside a city bus on Isle La Plume (PHOTO: Brad Williams)

Landrieu, accompanied by Mayor Mitch Reynolds and others, said cities like La Crosse need funding help from Washington to afford a bus that can cost around $400,000.

“Most of the time, local transit authorities don’t have this kind of money on their own,” Landrieu told reporters at the MTU bus barn. “So it really requires the federal government” to step up with funding.

Landrieu came to La Crosse as part of a two-day Wisconsin tour promoting the Biden campaign. The president, himself, visited the MTU headquarters in June of 2021, highlighting infrastructure needs.

Landrieu said D.C. is investing heavily in local projects important to Americans.

“The infrastructure bill actually is the first time in 50 years that the federal government has taken a substantial amount of taxpayers’ dollars and put them back exactly where the taxpayer said they wanted them,” he said.

Landrieu added that the first electric buses being used in La Crosse are state of the art vehicles.

Reynolds said the bus system is important in giving city residents a way to “move about the community, so they can live their best life.”

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