LANSING, MI (WKZO AM/FM) – Incoming Michigan House Speaker Matt Hall (R-Richland Township) Friday unveiled a plan that he says will fix Michigan’s roads and bridges, that he hopes will be taken up during the Legislature’s lame duck session.
Representative Hall says by dedicating existing tax dollars and expiring corporate handouts, his plan would invest nearly $3 billion in additional funding for infrastructure each year, including long-neglected local roads. The targeted investment proposal comes as general fund spending has grown by more than $4 billion since 2018 — a 40% increase — with almost none of that increase going toward Michigan’s crumbling roads and bridges.
Hall’s plan would immediately allocate $1.2 billion of corporate income tax (CIT) revenue to infrastructure, add $600 million in additional funding in 2026, and allocate every cent of state taxes at the gas pump to road funding, another nearly $1 billion increase.
Other portions of Hall’s plan includes:
Immediately dedicate $1.2 billion of annual CIT revenue for infrastructure, with the most resources going to local road agencies. County and city roads have been left behind in recent years, with the governor’s $3.5 billion in bonds over six years only supporting state highway repairs.
Beginning in FY 2025-2026, dedicate the rest of the $600 million in annual CIT revenue for infrastructure. This funding will utilize existing funding by replacing three current earmarks: $500 million for the Strategic Outreach and Attraction Reserve Fund that pays for corporate incentives, $50 million for the Revitalization and Placemaking Fund, and $50 million for the Housing and Community Development Fund. The SOAR and RAP earmarks are set to expire after FY 2024-2025 anyway, so Hall’s plan would replace that expiring allocation by dedicating more resources for roads.
Replacing the 6% sales tax on motor fuel with a corresponding revenue-neutral increase in the motor fuel tax, which exclusively supports infrastructure funding. This will yield about $945 million in additional resources. The plan would also hold school funding harmless from the decrease in sales tax revenue.
“State revenue has exploded in recent years and so has government spending. But what do we have to show for it?” Hall said. “Politicians spending billions of dollars every year on new projects and new programs, and then they turn around and say they have no money available for our local roads. It’s a lie. We need to dedicate this funding off the top to keep our politicians from blowing this money year after year. You have to force people in government to do their job and do the right thing. This locks in one of the people’s top priorities and gets the biggest need done first.”
Denise Donohue, CEO of the County Road Association of Michigan Friday said, “We applaud the plan offered by Rep. Hall and Governor Whitmer’s willingness to take on road funding in the coming ‘lame duck’ session. The time to act is now – our roads are deteriorating faster than we can fix them, and the members of the County Road Association have released multiple data points this year to document this situation. Leader Hall’s plan is a bold step in the right direction that we support, and we hope that all of our legislative leaders and the governor can agree on viable options in the few weeks remaining this year.”
“In 2023, despite the innovations and hard work of our county road professionals, a CRA survey showed that only 33 additional miles of roads were improved compared to 2022. This should be a wake-up call to everyone. We simply cannot sustain a 21st-century transportation system on funding mechanisms in place now. We need a funding increase yet this year, and Michigan must embrace a modern road funding system almost immediately thereafter.”
Expand the roads and enough with the road diets. 6-8 lanes on I-94. 6 lanes up to Traverse City.