Two bills before Wisconsin state lawmakers, AB748 and SB390, would offer drivers on state roads a clearer view – of billboards.

Companion bills would let permitted billboard owners knock down or trim trees and shrubs in public rights-of-way that obstruct a full six-second view of their ads, the Green Bay Press Gazette reported.

Currently, billboard or sign owners can ask the Wisconsin Department of Transportation to have trees or brush that are blocking their signs trimmed.

Under the proposal, billboard owners would need a WisDOT permit and would be responsible for the cost of trimming obstructing trees and shrubs, and for planting comparable replacement vegetation.

The agency would recover the costs to issue permits and administer the program by charging permit fees estimated at $1,760 each, the newspaper reported.

The law would apply only to billboards along state-controlled highways.

WisDOT opposes the bill, saying it could infringe on local control and affect the use of vegetation as a windbreak for dust or snow.

“This is not about whether you like or dislike billboards,” Rep. David Ward, R-Fort Atkinson, the bill’s primary sponsor in the Assembly, told The Press-Gazette. “It’s about requiring the Department of Transportation to speed up the manner in which it does its job or to get help.”

AB748 is now before the Assembly Transportation Committee; SB390 is now before the Senate Transportation Committee.