One Republican idea to help counties and larger cities in Michigan pay for local road repairs: allowing them to levy their own gas taxes and vehicle registration fees.
The concept is among several floating around Lansing this summer as GOP legislative leaders say they continue to work on a plan to fix Michigan’s crumbling roads and bridges — an estimated $2.5 billion problem for which a solution remains elusive.
Leaders of the GOP-led House and Senate have not shared specifics of the ideas they intend to propose as part of a road-funding plan to counter Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s proposed 45-cent gas tax increase. The Legislature recessed for the summer in June without completing a 2020 budget or roads deal; the state’s new fiscal year starts Oct. 1.
Republicans’ central dilemma: how to raise the roughly $2.5 billion a year needed for road repairs while avoiding — or, at least, limiting — tax increases that are anathema to the party and much of its political base?
Bridge
by Lindsay VanHulle
July 15, 2019