State Transportation Budget Moves Out of the Gate

After a week of false starts, the House Appropriations committee reported the transportation budget for state and local roads, this morning along party lines.  The full House of Representatives is now expected to vote on this budget later today (Thursday).  Since last week, the Appropriations committee has been taking additional testimony and considering amendments to the version of House Bill 5889 that the Transportation subcommittee recommended on March 16th. 

As originally proposed by Governor Granholm, the Transportation budget would have left the Michigan Department of Transportation $84 million short of being able to match all available federal gas tax funds...meaning that Michigan ran the risk of leaving nearly a half a billion dollars in Washington for other states to pick off.  The subcommittee reported a bill that followed this recommendation fairly closely, only able to appropriate the revenues that the state has available, without increasing gas taxes or vehicle registration fees. 

Two amendments, recommended by the League, that are included in the bill provide for language directing MDOT to restore projects that were delayed in the most recent Five-Year Plan  if additional federal funds are matched and some existing language on funding for the M-1 Woodward Ave Rail Project has been expanded to allow for funding of high-speed rail and other commuter or light rail transit projects.   As the bill made its way through the full committee, Republican and Democratic members of the committee made various attempts to fill-in the state's match shortfall, all unsuccessfully.  Early on, Appropriations committee chairman, George Cushingberry (Detroit) proposed adding nearly $500 million for MDOT, counties and municipal road agencies, by tying increased road revenues to passage of the gas, diesel, and vehicle registration fee bills that have been introduced in the House.  The chairman's amendment failed, as seven Democratic members either voted No or Abstained on the amendment, along with all 12 Republican members voting No, sending a message that many legislators aren't interested in voting for a tax increase prior to the November elections.  Republican members then made attempts to shift dollars from other areas of the budget to make up for the shortfall.  Their amendments sought to roll back scheduled employee pay raises, cut funding for transit, and shift money from the state's 21st Century Jobs program.  Each of these ideas failed as Transportation subcommittee chairman Lee Gonzalez (Flint) made numerous impassioned speeches about the importance of legislators doing the right thing and urged his colleagues to find the will to increase funding for investment in infrastructure, not pitting one line in the budget against another as a short term band-aid to the problem.

This morning, as the committee prepared to vote on the bill, one last amendment was offered as a way to protect legislators from voting on a budget that would have reflected the lack of available state match and the resulting half billion dollar reduction.  The amendment was adopted, along party lines to authorize the appropriation of additional revenue from a gas and diesel tax increase, if those bills were ever to pass.  The bill will look like it has solved the match problem, but without the new money actually existing until the revenue bills are adopted.  The budget bill now goes before the full House of Representatives where a swift vote is expected.  Senate consideration of these budgets is expected to begin following the Spring Break, in mid-April.  I will update this entry following the budget vote in the House.  Please let me know if you have any questions on the transportation budget.

Chris Hackbarth is the transportation policy advisor for the Michigan Municipal League.  Chris can be reached at 517-908-0303 or by email at chackbarth@mml.org.