Michigan’s funding debate repeats itself,” says James Hohman at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy:
It seems like Michigan lawmakers have been fighting about road spending for forever. This is because the state is responsible for keeping roads in good working order, and that requires political solutions. There has been a never-ending debate over what those solutions should be. The latest disagreement is between House Republicans, whose Speaker Matt Hall of Richland Township wants to spend more on roads without raising taxes, and Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who wants to spend more on roads by raising taxes.
Sound familiar? It should. In 2019 Whitmer asked for $2.5 billion in tax hikes in order to spend $1.9 billion on roads, with the rest going to her other priorities. The Legislature countered by allocating $400 million more to roads without raising taxes. The governor vetoed the extra spending.
There has been no major change in state road spending since then. The governor borrowed money from future road funding taxes to spend money over her term, which decreases long-term road funding and adds extra interest costs.
