LANSING ? Michigan Senate Majority Leader Randy Richardville on Tuesday said that while nothing has been ruled out and discussions are ongoing about a solution to raising $1.2 billion in new funding roads, he is less optimistic about being able to act by Thursday to put a proposal on the May ballot.

To raise the sales tax or change the way it is distributed, two-thirds majorities in both houses of the Legislature must vote to put such a proposal on the ballot for voter approval. The deadline for the soonest election that would not overlook this year’s construction season – May – is Thursday, and while legislative leaders in the thick of planning infrastructure changes are trying to remain optimistic, the majority leader is beginning to be a little less so.

The Senate is considering a framework where fuel would become exempt from the sales tax, the gasoline tax would be increased to raise most of the $1.2 billion and then the sales tax would rise from 6 to 7 percent to ensure schools, local governments and other recipients of sales tax revenue recoup the $950 million that would vanish from exempting fuel from the sales tax.

Asked about what kind of odds he would put on voting on a sales tax measure this week, Richardville said “it would be in the single digits – somewhere below 10 percent.”

“There’s still a chance but with the complications, the new ideas, and the fact that there is so little time to begin with is probably a small percentage,” he said. “But it’s still alive.”

But even if the sales tax idea is not voted on this week, Richardville said that does not necessarily take it out of the mix.

“The fact that we don’t make this date just means that there’s a construction season to consider. Is it worth having a special date, a special election, or should we look at a different election?” he told reporters after session. “Or is it something that we’re not going to put on a ballot at all? I don’t think it does anything to the idea except maybe enhances the possibilities of other ideas being wed to it and it being a more eclectic solution than a one-way kind of position.”

He said he is feeling less insistent about the idea than he did at the beginning of last week because of all of the effort that has taken place on the issue.

“People have worked over the weekend, people have worked late last week and even some ideas I hadn’t even heard of as late as this morning people have brought in,” Richardville said.

He also said the caucus would probably make its final decision on the matter Wednesday and that it could all be done on Thursday back and forth between the chambers, but some members are beginning to feel overwhelmed and that things are moving too quickly for such a large decision.

“We’ll listen to them, and we’ll slow some things down. Some things you can slow down, some things you can’t,” he said. “This is one where the new ideas, I think the fact that we threw an idea on the table that hadn’t been fully vetted before caused more people to bring newer ideas and actually we have more to choose from now than we did before. So to give all those ideas a chance to be looked at I think is going to end up taking more time.”

As for the estimated $1.2 billion needed to maintain the state’s roads in their current system, Richardville said he did not think any single solution would develop that kind of money right away.

“Is there $1.2 billion that we can turn a switch on and have tomorrow to put into roads? I don’t think so,” he said. “Could there eventually with these ideas and other ideas like it, yeah I think that’s plausible. How long it takes to develop those ideas would be the question.”

Democrats have indicated strong opposition to raising the sales tax, and the proposal will not clear the Legislature without Democratic votes.

Ari Adler, spokesperson for House Speaker Jase Bolger (R-Marshall) said the speaker has not made a decision about a road funding policy at this time but will continue to work with the Senate on its proposal.

One of the biggest points of concern when it comes to the sales tax is being able to spread it out in a way that enough dollars do in fact go to transportation funding but also do not neglect the funding schools and local government.

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