LANSING – Governor Rick Snyder’s administration will wait until after legislative work on his tax proposal and the 2011-12 budget is completed before introducing a bill authorizing construction of a new Detroit-Windsor bridge, administration sources said.
Snyder set a deadline of May 31 to complete action on the budget. Most observers expect that final action also depends on completion of the tax proposal, which would end the Michigan Business Tax and replace it with a 6 percent corporate income tax as well as subject pensions to the income tax and essentially scrap Michigan’s Earned Income Tax Credit.
Even if the budget is not completed exactly on May 31 or before, all legislative officials say it should be completed in June.
Sources said the administration wants the bulk of the budget and tax proposal completed before introducing the bill to authorize construction of what Snyder has called the New International Trade Crossing and has been known as the Detroit River International Crossing.
However, the bridge has been so far one of the few major proposals Snyder has supported that has not been introduced in the Legislature.
Asked repeatedly when the bill would be dropped, administration officials have said to this point the bill would be coming “soon.”
But sources indicated that since Snyder considers action on the tax proposal and the budget the top priority now, the focus will be put on those issues before diverting attention to the bridge issue, which could be tougher to win over lawmakers.
A number of business sources who have spent time trying to convince lawmakers to support the bridge have reported it is hard slogging to win reluctant lawmakers to the issue.
Snyder press secretary Sara Wurfel confirmed that the administration’s plan essentially is to wait for most of the budget and tax legislation to be finalized before introducing the bridge bill. One reason is to keep the focus on the tax and budget legislation, Wurfel said.
Additionally of the bridge bill, Wurfel said: “We’ve got the draft out there. We’re circulating it. We’re working on feedback. It’s important for us to get it right instead of right now.”
Legislative Republicans have resisted for several years now approving authorization for the new bridge, despite support from every living governor, the vast majority of Detroit-area businesses and top local Republican officials such as Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson.
The owners of the Ambassador Bridge have pushed for the right to build a second bridge next to their current structure, which they have said they will pay for. So far, however, final authority from both countries for that structure has not been given.
Building the new bridge is considered one of the top infrastructure projects of the Canadian national government, and that government has offered to pay the state up to $550 million to cover the costs of the state’s portion of building access roads and ramps to the new bridge, and be repaid with toll revenues.
Snyder won approval from the federal government to be able to use that payment as part of the state’s match for federal highway funds. Last week, the Transportation Commission approved its latest five-year plan on the presumption that money would be made available. If the Canadian funds were unavailable, then the state’s road construction and repair program would be considerably smaller.
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