It appears that the Governor and legislative leaders in the House and Senate have arrived at a deal that will cover the expected transportation funding shortfall for the coming fiscal year. Based upon gas tax and vehicle registration revenue estimates, MDOT was anticipating being $84 million dollars short of matching all availabe federal gas tax revenue that was allocated to Michigan for the coming budget year, potentially jeopardizing nearly a half billion dollars in federal funds. This funding crisis was used by transportation advocates, including the League, to push legislators for an increase in transportation revenues. Instead, the deal that legislators are expected to act on later this week, will simply shift dollars within the MDOT budget and utilize one-time fixes to patch over the $84 million hole and push off the discussion of transportation revenue needs for another year.
The details of the deal are still being finalized, but could involve MDOT generating up to $40 million from the sale of a one-year bond, further utilization of federal toll credits and continuing the current year reduction to the Transportation Economic Development Fund, delaying a number of internal department facility maintenance and construction projects, eliminating an expected pay raise for non-union department employees, and a number of other internal department efficiencies and reductions, including cuts to the state's welcome centers.
Stay tuned for more details as the conference report on the budget is brought up later this week.
Chris Hackbarth handles transportation issues for the Michigan Municipal League. Chris can be reached at 517-908-0303, or by email at chackbarth@mml.org.
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