While announcing his support for a new plan to dedicate billions more dollars each year to fix Michigan’s crumbling roads, state Rep. Mike Harris on Tuesday called for bipartisan action on the funding plan before the end of the year.

House Republicans’ plan, announced on Friday by Speaker-elect Matt Hall, would reserve $2.7 billion annually for road and bridge repairs without raising taxes. The plan will reallocate resource to roads while continuing to provide full funding for education. Harris said the permanent, dedicated road funding from corporate income tax and gas tax revenues would prevent politicians from neglecting roads by wasting the money on other projects and programs.

“The gaping holes in infrastructure funding in Michigan match the potholes in our roads,” said Harris, R-Waterford. “Politicians in Lansing prefer to waste the people’s hard-earned tax dollars on unnecessary new programs instead of carefully investing to fix our broken infrastructure — especially our local roads. The House Republican plan will put an end to this irresponsible spending by setting aside billions of dollars for roads. And we’ll do it without raising taxes.”

Harris said lawmakers of both parties should come together to pass the plan during the Legislature’s lame-duck session — the post-election period in November and December — even before Republicans take the House majority in January. He said the need for more road funding is especially urgent because federal dollars and the governor’s bonding for state highways are coming to an end.

“Federal and state funding for Michigan roads is running out, so we need to give road funding a much-needed boost as soon as possible,” Harris said. “Funding to fix our infrastructure is exactly the kind of bipartisan priority the people’s representatives should tackle before the end of the year. I hope we can get this done, not only to steer clear of the funding drop off, but also to give extra support for the local roads that received nothing from the governor’s bonding.”

The plan would immediately allocate $1.2 billion of corporate income tax (CIT) revenue to infrastructure, add $600 million in additional funding in 2026, and add every cent of state taxes at the gas pump to road funding where it belongs — another nearly $1 billion increase. Specifically, the plan would:

• Immediately dedicate $1.2 billion of annual CIT revenue for infrastructure, with the most resources going to local road agencies. County and city roads have been left behind in recent years, with the governor’s $3.5 billion in bonds over six years only supporting state highway repairs. This new dedicated funding will ensure local roads get needed resources. The revenues currently go toward the general fund, even as general fund spending has ballooned by $4.3 billion — more than 40% — since 2018.
• Beginning in FY 2025-2026, dedicate the rest of the $600 million in annual CIT revenue for infrastructure. This funding will utilize existing funding by replacing three current earmarks: $500 million for the Strategic Outreach and Attraction Reserve Fund that pays for corporate incentives, $50 million for the Revitalization and Placemaking Fund, and $50 million for the Housing and Community Development Fund. The SOAR and RAP earmarks are set to expire after FY 2024-2025 anyway, so the House Republican plan would replace that expiring allocation by dedicating more resources for roads. The end of automatic SOAR funding will force the governor and others to actually make a good case for new incentive funding after recent projects have wasted billions of dollars, handed taxpayer dollars to Chinese Communist Party-affiliated ventures, and created few jobs.
• Replace the 6% sales tax on motor fuel with a corresponding revenue-neutral increase in the motor fuel tax, which exclusively supports infrastructure funding. This will yield about $945 million in additional resources. The plan would also hold school funding harmless from the decrease in sales tax revenue.