This afternoon the House Transportation Committee held a hearing on SB 166, a bill that would eliminate portions of the driver responsibility fee. The driver responsibility fees fund fire protection grants for a number of our communities.
If the driver responsibility fee collections exceed $65 million, then $3.5 million is deposited in the fire protection fund. If collections exceed $100 million, another $5 million is deposited in the fund for a total of $8.5 million.
While it doesn't appear that the dollar amounts reduced by the bill would directly affect fire protection grants (yet), it's critical that we preserve this funding in the future.
The sponsor of the bill indicated in committee that he would consider an amendment to allow fire protect grants to be funded on the front end instead of meeting the triggers of $65 million and $100 million.
Samantha Harkins works for the Michigan Municipal League handling municipal services issues. She can be reached at 517-908-0306 or email at sharkins@mml.org
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