State lawmakers are hitting the reset button on talks over how to fix Michigan’s crumbling roads.
A state Senate work group met for the first time Thursday to hammer out a solution. The Michigan Public Radio Network’s Jake Neher reports.
Most estimates say the state needs to boost road funding by more than $1 billion a year just to keep the roads from getting worse. When talks over how to do that left off – lawmakers had just left Lansing for their summer break after failing to pass a number of plans to fix the roads. Democrats now want to revisit a plan that would raise the state’s gas tax to pay for infrastructure improvements.
But state Senate Majority Leader Randy Richardville seems to have moved on from that idea.
“I think that that is probably all but off the table now,” he says. “I do not see that happening.”
Richardville says he’s looking for new ideas from all members of the legislature. He says he does not see lawmakers approving a comprehensive road funding solution before the November election.