NEWS RELEASE
STATE REP. PARKER FAIRBAIRN
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State Rep. Parker Fairbairn on Wednesday spearheaded the passage of a commonsense plan to fix the roads without raising taxes.
The legislation – House Bills 4180 through 4187 and HB 4230 – would annually dedicate $3.1 billion to roads, specifically $2.5 billion to local roads. The legislative package passed the House with bipartisan support.
“I’m proud to co-sponsor the House plan to fix and maintain our roads,” said Fairbairn, R-Harbor Springs.
“There have been holes, literally and metaphorically, in our local and state roads for far too long. It’s baffling how something so essential, something we all use daily, can go underfunded for so many years. The bipartisan plan we passed today finally addresses our crumbling infrastructure and ensures the state has immediate and ongoing funding to repair and maintain state and local roads.”
The bipartisan roads plan would annually dedicate $2.2 billion from the Corporate Income Tax (CIT) to roads, shifting $220 million to the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) and $1.98 billion to local roads.
More specifically, $275 million is set aside for neighborhood streets like subdivisions and $100 million for delipidated bridges in local communities.
Currently, the CIT is spent on various corporate welfare initiatives. The Republican roads plan would reallocate $50 million from wasteful or expiring grant programs and end regular funding to the Strategic Outreach and Attraction Reserve (SOAR) fund.
House Republicans argue that funding for SOAR projects should be approved on a case-by-case basis.
The roads plan also removes the sales tax on fuel and replaces it with an equivalent motor fuel tax, securing nearly another $1 billion for roads without raising taxes.
The legislation explicitly earmarks $755 million of sales tax revenue to the School Aid Fund to completely replace the losses incurred from removing the gas tax.
The bills would also create the Neighborhood Roads Fund, which would distribute money to local municipalities based on the number of road miles in the community, not on the ability to generate matching funds.
“There are so many small communities in Northern Michigan, the Upper Peninsula, and across our state who simply don’t have the tax base to regularly generate matching funds to secure support for local road projects,” Fairbairn said.
“While I agree with the idea of local units of government having a stake in their roads, it isn’t right to assume that every local unit of government can afford to regularly make these investments. Being less affluent or more rural shouldn’t disqualify large areas of our state from having drivable roads.”
The roads plan now moves to the Senate for further consideration.
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