Senate

The Michigan Legislature finally passed a “Roads Funding” package of bills which the Governor has said he will sign into law. Unfortunately, the package was really the least they could do, the very least.

There are a few silver linings in the package, including $60 million a year for Michigan’s transit agencies, adjustments for inflation, and more flexibility for Detroit to invest in transit.

But it also has some mayor dark clouds, including long delays before implementation, only half of the funding from new revenue, and threats to other budget priorities in years to come.

Read on for more details.

The Michigan Senate voted July 1 on their alternative to a transportation funding package, passing it with mostly Republicans votes. While far better than the House version, it remains insufficient.

We applaud that it would provide roughly $80 million more a year for transit, but are concerned that transit gets only 5% of the total funding and only budget priorities are threatened.

We strongly urge the legislature to improve upon the Senate version and reject the House version, providing sufficient stable funding to our full transportation system without gutting other state budget priorities.