Michigan lawmakers are debating the best way to increase funding to maintain the state’s roads, but a new report from the Citizens Research Council argues that there are ways to make better use of the money the state already has available. 

Eric Paul Dennis, a research associate of infrastructure policy at the Citizens Research Council of Michigan, says the biggest road block the state faces in distributing funds effectively for roads is Public Act 51.

“It was supposed to be a 15-year-long construction program. It was scheduled to sunset originally in 1967,” Dennis said. “And the idea was once we used these construction dollars to build out a road network, that law would be sunset and it would be replaced with something more appropriate for ongoing maintenance.”

However, instead of replacing the law with a more sustainable road funding approach, lawmakers have repeatedly amended it.

“I believe it’s now been amended over 300 times,” he said.

Dennis said one of the main criticisms of the current system is the outdated methodology used to distribute funding. He added that the state has better equipment and technology to assess the condition of roads, and can make better decisions on allocating funds based on that.

“We can automate data collection now, computers do everything. We send that data to a mapping server or something, and that can give us much more precise, much more usable information about what our road network looks like,” Dennis said.

A significant portion of that funding has been directed toward expanding highway capacity rather than maintenance.

“The money that we are getting, we’re spending a decent part of that putting down more and more pavement,” he said.

But Dennis said adding more roads will only increase spending in the long run.

“When you do that, you’re imposing long-term maintenance liabilities. Thinking about things like that, I think, would go a long way in assuring that we can get to a financially stable situation in our road funding,” he added.

A Republican-backed plan to fund road repairs in Michigan could be voted out of a state House committee Tuesday.

The proposal involves removing the 6% sales tax currently charged on gas sales and replacing it with a higher fuel tax that would go toward road repairs. The bill package sponsors say consumers wouldn’t see any difference in how much they pay.

The bills would also send around $2.2 billion in corporate income tax revenue to roads as well.

State Rep. Pat Outman (R-Six Lakes) chairs the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. He said he plans to add another bill to the package that would create a neighborhood road fund to make sure side streets don’t get forgotten.

“It’s a fund specifically for certain streets that might not be federally aid eligible or ones that are most neglected that usually don’t get the adequate resources to it,” Outman said Monday.

Outman said the fund would be a good deal for smaller units of government like townships since they wouldn’t necessarily have to match what county road departments spend on road projects.

While House Republicans are pushing forward with their road funding plan, Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is promoting her own.

Like Republicans, Whitmer has also suggested using all taxes collected at the gas pump for road repairs. But she’s also looking to have large companies and the marijuana industry pay more to help with roads too.

Outman said a compromise is still a ways out.

“The bottom line is the vast majority of her money is generated through new revenue sources. And then the vast majority of ours is through existing revenue and just rather reprioritizing some existing funding,” Outman said.

Some concerns have arisen about what would happen to school funding under the proposals, given that it depends largely on sales tax revenue that would no longer be collected on gas.

Republicans say they’ve answered that concern by dedicating an extra $775 million to the School Aid Fund.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer will deliver her seventh State of the State address at 7 p.m. ET on Wednesday, Feb. 26.

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She’s expected to outline her administration’s plans for the next year in the address, covering key topics like her plans for job growth, lowering costs and improving the state’s roads. 

Whitmer initially campaigned on the theme “Fix The Damn Roads,” but critics complain that there’s been only marginal improvements in recent years. 

The address will be held in the Michigan House Chambers in front of a joint session of the Michigan House of Representatives and the Michigan Senate, and will be broadcast live throughout the state.

“Michigan is a state on the move as we continue working together to create good-paying jobs, fix our roads, and invest in our students and schools,” Whitmer said in a statement. “I look forward to delivering my 2025 State of the State Address where I will lay out my plan to build on our years of strong, bipartisan progress and strategic, fiscally responsible leadership.”

Tune in to WDET 101.9 FM or stream the address live at wdet.org to hear Whitmer’s full remarks and the Republican response, or watch the livestream below.

More headlines for Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2025:

• Motorists throughout metro Detroit are preparing for the closure of eastbound I-696 in the city’s northern suburbs. The freeway will be closed between I-75 and Lahser Road starting on Saturday. This phase of the reconstruction project is expected to last two years.
• The Great Lakes Water Authority is seeking a rate increase for water and sewer service. The agency is holding a public hearing at 6 p.m. Wednesday, on Zoom and in person at the Water Board Building, 735, Randolph St., Detroit, to discuss the rate increase request.
• The city of Detroit has announced the grand opening of 86 new affordable housing units in the area near Woodward between downtown and Midtown.
• Officials from the Detroit Lions are in Indianapolis this week for the NFL Combine, an event that gives the league’s 32 teams a chance to review hundreds of college players in advance of the April draft.

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