MILWAUKEE — A summit on regional transit sounded something like a pep rally for public transportation by the time it wrapped up Friday.

A panel of transit backers from Kenosha, Racine and Milwaukee didn’t agree entirely on the viability of commuter rail in the region, but they were united on one major point: Now is the time to pass legislation to create a true regional transit authority with a dedicated sales tax.

And a national expert on transit and urban sustainability said that authority must be taken seriously in order for anything to get done.

Panelist Eric Isbister was blunt. Isbister said a lack of public transit near his Mequon-based business shuts his company off from many car-less members of an enormous workforce a few miles south in Milwaukee.

“We’ve got to stop romancing this issue,” said Isbister, chief executive officer of General MetalWorks Corp., a Mequon-based metal fabrication firm. “We’ve got to get results.”

Said Deborah Blanks, chief executive officer of the Milwaukee Social Development Commission: “It’s about access and opportunity. It’s a connector to prosperity.”

The summit, at the Italian Conference Center, was presented by the Urban Economic Development Association of Wisconsin, the Greater Milwaukee Committee and the city of Milwaukee.

It came as the Wisconsin Legislature is poised to act on the latest effort to link the transit systems of Kenosha, Racine and Milwaukee — and the KRM commuter rail proposal — under an umbrella regional authority that would take transit off the property tax rolls.

Gov. Jim Doyle last week unveiled a rough framework in which an umbrella authority would oversee KRM and begin to levy a half-percent sales tax to fund transit in Milwaukee County, where residents favored the tax in a referendum last year.

Kenosha and Racine counties would continue to operate their bus systems independently with “mini” authorities that would use sources allowed by current law. These bodies would be eligible for state incentives and enticements to eventually join the umbrella authority.

Doyle has said he hopes to see the framework turned into legislation and adopted in the coming months.

The Milwaukee County bus system is in particular need of aid. The cash-strapped system has continually cut service and raised fares and is headed toward oblivion without a regional setup, transit supporters warn.

Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett said the need for a regional transit system is all about access to jobs.

“I believe that we need to have rail as part of our transportation arsenal if we are going to compete in the world economy,” Barrett said.

The national expert who spoke Friday, Scott Bernstein of the Chicago-based Center for Neighborhood Technology, said the Milwaukee region could look at Portland, Ore., as a model.

Over the last quarter-century, that city has developed a regional transit system that has become a model for transit advocates.

“Twenty-five years ago, it was the poor cousin to Seattle, Wash., very similar to the relationship that you have with Chicago,” Bernstein said.

“It’s time to start acting like a region,” Bernstein also said. “Because you can’t afford not to.”

Karl Ostby, a city of Kenosha delegate and chairman of a recently disbanded transit authority that was formed temporarily to seek a KRM funding source, said a study of practically every metropolitan area in the United States found that southeastern Wisconsin is one of just a few regions that does not have dedicated transit funding and a regional authority.

Milwaukee County Supervisor Chris Larson urged the transit supporters in the audience to contact their state representatives and senators to urge for a regional authority with a dedicated sales tax. Kenosha County Supervisor Jennifer Jackson, an audience member, put the onus on these state-level officials.

“This seems to be not about getting it done — everyone seems to be on the page about funding it,” Jackson said. “It’s fear of re-election that’s keeping the sales tax from getting done.”