Photo credit: Daniel Mears, The Detroit News
On March 11, Detroit Regional Chamber Vice President of Political Affairs Brad Williams testified in the Michigan House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee regarding the Republican proposed road funding plan, which includes the elimination of Michigan Economic Growth Authority (MEGA) credits.
“Finally, the Chamber has concerns with the spending formula in this package,” said Williams in his testimony. “While we recognize the importance of fixing our roads, the current formula was written in 1951, before the advent of the interstate highway system or the Mackinac Bridge, and while Detroit’s street cars were moving throughout the city. The formula treats the increasingly potholed Merriman Road that leads to Detroit Metro Airport as if it has the same needs as the two-lane Van Horn Road, just a few miles south. It distributes funds based on road miles instead of traffic volume or lane miles. This formula disproportionately impacts urban areas, which carry the bulk of Michigan’s population and traffic and are left with insufficient resources to address their road needs. We believe it’s time to rebalance the formula to ensure equitable funding across all areas of the state – especially for cities and local communities that face the highest levels of congestion and wear on their infrastructure.”
Read and watch Williams’ full testimony here.
Similar sentiments were expressed in a recent op-ed from Chad Livengood, Politics Editor and Columnist at The Detroit News. In the op-ed, Livengood discusses how communities like Canton Township have taken Michigan’s road crisis into their own hands through dedicated millages. Although the millages have helped road commissions put more money into preventive maintenance of roads in townships, not every political leader is “willing to take the political heat from putting a millage on the ballot,” says Livengood.
Despite millages turning “the tide on decades of disinvestment in infrastructure,” it’s crucial for lawmakers to fix the state funding formula for roads, which the Chamber supports.