Plan prioritizes at least $2.7 billion for roads without tax increase

State Rep. Pat Outman (R-Six Lakes) issued the following statement voicing his support for House Speaker-elect Matt Hall’s recently announced plan to fix Michigan’s roads and bridges without increasing taxes:

“Prioritizing our roads with real dollars and policy changes rather than just rhetoric is long overdue. The people I represent in small town and rural Michigan want to be able to get from point A to point B safely and without harm to their vehicles.

“The thing that sets this plan apart is that it focuses on the roads people drive on every day, the ones right outside their homes and on their way to work, not just our highways. Local communities must become a priority.”

“House Republicans are ready to hit the ground running when we regain majority in January, but there’s no reason to wait until them to get a road funding plan in place. I’m urging my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to come together and get this done as soon as possible.”

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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