Michigan lawmakers work on road fix plan, money solution for $2B to $3B price tag
Bipartisan leaders in the House, Senate, and governor are working to release a multibillion-dollar road repair proposal.
LANSING (FOX 2):Lansing lawmakers are searching for additional funding to assist with road repairs. The enormous cost of up to $3 billion might accompany it.
Bipartisan leaders in the House, Senate, and governor are working to release a multibillion-dollar road repair proposal.
“We’re very hopeful that one is,” said lobbyist Lance Binoniemi, who works for construction companies. “We are aware that the governor and the four leaders have been discussing this matter, and those discussions have been comparatively fruitful. However, it’s not yet soup.
However, the fact that they are working on it is a significant advancement.
It all began with Matt Hall, the new Republican House Speaker, who wants to divert funds from a particular special interest to fund road construction.
“You just take the corporations’ income tax and you dedicate it to roads,” Hall stated.
The GOP’s plan also calls for raising the gas tax in place of the current six percent sales tax at the pump, which does not fund the roads.
Despite the cash number, road lobbyists claim that this may appear and feel like a tax increase, but it is not.
“Depending on the price of fuel, (it will be) anywhere between .19 to .24 cents and that raised $1.1 to $1.2 billion,” Binoniemi stated. “If you eliminate the sales tax on fuel and you raise the gas tax by an eqivalent amount, it’s a zero-sum revenue neutral proposal.”
It is not a tax increase, as indicated by the term revenue neutral.
The biggest challenge facing the governor and other officials is that some parties want to increase additional taxes, while others want to find the road money by reducing the budget for existing state services.
“So I think our leaders are doing their best to figure out how they massage that,” Binoniemi said. “It’s better than 50-50 I think, at this point.”
He anticipates a potential road fix next week and some action on this in the Michigan House soon.
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