Senate Delays Vote on Road Package

The Senate has delayed a vote on the road-funding package passed over by the House. Senate Majority Leader Arlan Meekhof (R-West Olive) has commented he wants to work to find a solution, not just votes.

The proposal Senate Republicans were previously considering was a 600/600 split, meaning $600 million in new revenue and $600 million from existing General Fund dollars. The new revenue would come from the phase-in of a 3.3 cent gasoline tax increase, aligning the diesel tax with regular gas tax, and would be combined with a 40 percent increase on registration fees. This proposal was sent to the House in July, but not taken up. The package that the Senate received from the House last week relies heavily on registration fees to raise most of the new proposed revenues, while the Senate favors higher weighting on the tax adjustments. Senator Meekhof commented there is much “heartburn” from Senate Republicans over this section of the proposal, so the Senate will continue to delay the vote until the package has been worked on to improve it.

Senate Majority Leader Meekhof and Senate Minority Leader Jim Ananich (D-Flint) reiterated the same stance that the Legislature is looking for the right solution to fixing the roads, not just a solution that will garner votes. It is unclear whether Governor Snyder supports the latest plan, but Senate discussions will continue into this coming week.

posted by PAA Online , Friday, October 30, 2015 10:44 AM
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