Governor Rick Snyder says a plan adopted by the state House to shift sales taxes collected on fuel sales to roads won’t work.
He says that could rob schools and local governments of money they need to operate.
“What I would say is the House action doesn’t get us there fast enough or far enough. It also creates major consequences to schools and local partners -- that I don’t want to see negative things happen to them.”
But Snyder says he still believes the Legislature can get something done on roads during its “lame duck” session. The governor prefers the Senate-adopted version that would increase the fuel tax. He says the state needs to generate in excess of a $1 billion a year to fix its long-neglected transportation infrastructure.
“We need to do something and something of significance to get better roads. No one in our state likes our roads. If you find that person, send ‘em to me. I don’t think you can.”
The House plan would shift sales taxes collected on fuel sales to roads. Republicans also adopted an amendment that would revert to the current system of appropriations for schools or local governments go down during a six-year transition period.
“Speaker Bolger agrees with the governor that we need to find a solution and we have two weeks to work together to find the solution,” said Bolger spokesman Ari Adler. “Speaker Bolger will explain to the governor how his plan does not take money from schools or local governments, and we worked … to protect them.”
The “lame duck” session is expected to wrap up in a couple weeks. If road funding is not wrapped up by then, the process would start over with the new session that begins in January.