Estimates $2.7 billion for roads without tax increase

State Rep. Donni Steele on Friday released the following statement after she pledged her support for House Speaker-elect Matt Hall’s recently announced plan to fix Michigan’s roads and bridges without increasing taxes:

“It’s refreshing to see House Republicans’ begin refocusing our state investments onto the issues that matter most to our residents. I look forward to starting that work by securing funding to rebuild our crumbling local infrastructure without charging taxpayers another dime.

“This plan makes serious cuts to the rampant corporate welfare driven by the governor and redirects that funding to the communities who have been seeking aid for years. These local leaders have been forced to watch as their state government ignores funding requests while writing what are essentially blank checks to huge corporations with no real ties to our communities. That wasteful spending ends with this plan.

The plan would:

• Immediately dedicate $1.2 billion of annual corporate income tax (CIT) revenue for infrastructure, with the most resources going to local road agencies. County and city roads have been left behind in recent years, with the governor’s $3.5 billion in bonds over six years only supporting state highway repairs. This new dedicated funding will ensure local roads get needed resources.

• Beginning in FY 2025-2026, dedicate the rest of the $600 million in annual CIT revenue for infrastructure. This funding will utilize existing funding by replacing three current earmarks: $500 million for the Strategic Outreach and Attraction Reserve Fund that pays for corporate incentives, $50 million for the Revitalization and Placemaking Fund, and $50 million for the Housing and Community Development Fund. The SOAR and RAP earmarks are set to expire after FY 2024-2025 anyway, so Hall’s plan would replace that expiring allocation by dedicating more resources for roads. The end of automatic SOAR funding will force the governor and others to actually make a good case for new incentive funding after recent projects have wasted billions of dollars, handed taxpayer dollars to Chinese-affiliated ventures, and created few jobs.

• Replace the 6% sales tax on motor fuel with a corresponding revenue-neutral increase in the motor fuel tax, which exclusively supports infrastructure funding. This will yield about $945 million in additional resources. The plan would also hold school funding harmless from the decrease in sales tax revenue.

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