LANSING, MI (WHTC) – State House Speaker Kevin Cotter unveiled a road funding plan that he claims would generate over a billion dollars annually.
The Mount Pleasant Republican wants to tap into restricted economic development funds, allocate a portion of projected general fund growth, eliminate the Earned Income Tax Credit, raise diesel fuel tax to 19 cents, and levy user fees on alternative fueled vehicles. Cotter told reporters he would consider keeping the House in session through the summer, but didn’t commit to it as the Senate already has.
The Michigan League for Public Policy came out quickly against Cotter’s road funding initiative, claiming that the billion-dollar plan would “pave roads on the backs of the poor” through elimination of the EITC. The MLPP had other things to think about, though; the daughter of its President and CEO Gilda Jacobs, ApprenNet CEO Rachel Jacobs, was on board the Amtrak train in Philadelphia that had derailed and was one of the fatal casualities.
