LANSING – Organizations are starting to review the roads plan the House passed late Wednesday night, and the first reviews of the proposal are not positive.
One reaction was hostile, though the reaction came from an organization circulating petitions to increase the state’s Corporate Income Tax to help pay for a roads plan.
But other groups said the proposal could mean cuts to public services, as well as schools. And one local government organization worried the Legislature would cut funding to local government if the proposal becomes law.
The plan – which would in fiscal year 2020-21 raise $600 million in new revenue for roads and cut $600 million from the General Fund to make up the remainder of a $1.2 billion needed for roads and bridges – passed with predominately Republican support. It would increase the gas tax by 3.3 cents in 2018 and increase registration fees an average of $55 per vehicle. It would offset those increases with an increase in the Homestead Property Tax exemption.
The bill has not been embraced by Governor Rick Snyder and was met with mixed reactions in the Senate (see separate story). Business leaders have also had a mixed reaction to the proposal.
The Michigan League for Public Policy issued a statement calling the proposal “fiscally irresponsible and shortsighted.” All of the money taken from the General Fund are undefined and “only means more pain for our schools, our public safety and our state services that have already endured devastating cuts,” said league vice president Karen Holcomb-Merrill.
Larry Merrill, executive director of the Michigan Townships Association, said the organization backs more funding for Michigan’s roads. But “the House action is only half of a plan by not specifying which state programs and services will be cut or eliminated,” he said in a statement.
The MTA was particularly concerned because the Legislature has, in the past, “gut” funding for local services, and “that could again be the case” if the plan is adopted, he said.
And the group Citizens for Fair Taxes, which is circulating petitions for a ballot proposal to increase the CIT to help pay for roads, blasted the proposal saying it targeted middle class and working class families with higher taxes while “letting corporations off the hook.”
But the West Michigan Policy Forum indicated it supported the plan. The group sent a letter to Mr. Snyder and legislators urging quick action on road funding and noting that it supports a plan taking $600 million from the GF and $600 million from new revenue.
This story was published by Gongwer News Service. To subscribe, click on www.gongwer.com
