Hundreds say now is time to invest in Michigan roads (Detroit Free Press)
Rally promotes reforming transportation funding
Hundreds of skilled trades workers, road industry groups and local government officials gathered at the Capitol this morning to rally the Legislature to overhaul transportation funding in Michigan as the state faces a huge drop in funding starting in 2011.
“It’s not going to get any better, folks,” John Niemela, director of the County Road Association of Michigan, said during a news conference at the rotunda in the Capitol, where several hundred people met before heading to speak individually with state lawmakers.
The groups, which presented 5,000 signatures to state House Speaker Pro-Tem Pam Byrnes, D-Lyndon Township, are advocating for major reform of Michigan’s road funding system. It would include raising fuel taxes and vehicle registration fees as well as looking at tolling and government partnerships with the private sector.
They contend the state’s roads and transit systems are woefully underfunded, endangering infrastructure and jobs. Revenues from gas taxes and vehicle registration fees have fallen steadily in recent years, and the Michigan Department of Transportation is warning of an $84-million shortfall in money the state needs as a required match for about $500 million in federal funding in 2011 alone.
If the state doesn’t raise the match, the federal money would go to other states.
“This is not acceptable to me as a taxpayer – it should not be acceptable to you,” said Casey Dutmer of Wyoming in west Michigan, a retiree who uses public transit in the Grand Rapids area and attended the rally.
Supporters came from across the state. They included John Hunt, a road commissioner in the Thumb’s Huron County, who said Michigan needs to raise money to improve its roads, noting that the state has plywood attached to the bottom of freeway overpasses across metro Detroit to prevent crumbling pavement from falling on traffic below.
“It is going south fast,” said Hunt, owner of the J.W. Hunt trucking company in Bad Axe.
Saline Mayor Gretchen Driskell said it’s time to act.
“We don’t have enough money to take care of our transportation system – it’s very simple,” Driskell said. “I’m here as a local mayor because I’m fed up with talking about it. This is an investment in our future.”
Byrnes said many lawmakers are reluctant to consider raising taxes in a dismal economy and an election year. She acknowledged prospects for a major transportation funding increase faces an uphill battle.
Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop, R-Rochester, said lawmakers are instead focusing on finding savings in the state’s transportation system and applying that money to the shortfall in matching funds.
“We could talk about a tax increase forever,” Bishop said. “There are not sufficient votes in this Legislature for that now.”
BY MATT HELMS
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER
Contact MATT HELMS: [email protected]. Staff writer Chris Christoff contributed to this report.
Posted: 6:08 a.m. May 4, 2010 | Updated: 1 p.m. May 4, 2010
