LANSING – The Board of Directors at the Michigan Chamber of Commerce is concerned about the Legislature’s inability to provide more than $1 billion in infrastructure funding, so it is considering an initiative petition in January if lawmakers can’t find a permanent solution by the end of the year.

“While we’re hopeful this issue might still be resolved, the business people we represent don’t feel hope is a very good strategy,” said Rich Studley, CEO of the Michigan Chamber of Commerce. “It just seems like we’re constantly always starting over and that’s been a real challenge.”

Studley said Chamber staff, with permission from its board, is looking at three or four different alternatives, including earmarking all the revenue generated by the sales tax on gasoline to road funding. Currently, none of that money actually goes to roads, but is instead mostly divvied up between the School Aid Fund, revenue sharing aid to local governments and the General Fund.

The idea was met with criticism by the Michigan League for Public Policy and the National Federation of Independent Business-Michigan.

“Michigan needs better roads, but not at the expense of kids and communities. As Michigan continues to recover from the Great Recession, investments in education and communities are key strategies needed for the economy to improve and to grow the skilled workers necessary for today’s global economy,” MLPP Vice President Karen Holcomb-Merrill said in statement. “Blowing a hole in the budget of at least a half-billion dollars and leaving it up to lawmakers to fill the gap is an irresponsible and dangerous idea.”

NFIB was critical more of the idea of pushing the Legislature to do something in lame duck, but said members might support an effort that dedicated the sales tax on gasoline to roads instead of schools and local governments.

“Our members have always been frustrated with the fact that Michigan applies the sales tax to motor fuels, but none of the money is used for roads,” NFIB State Director Charlie Owens said in a statement. “However, we do have a concern that subsequent efforts by schools and local governments to regain that funding will target small business down the road.”

Studley said the Chamber watched “with interest” as Raise Michigan launched a petition drive to increase the minimum wage and essentially force the Legislature to do something or risk an outcome Republicans were largely against: an increase in the minimum wage for all workers, including tipped workers, to the same level (Studley said he believes the Legislature took the appropriate action to enact a “significant but less damaging increase” in the state’s minimum wage).

“We’d rather not have to go through a petition drive. It is not our intent to put a proposal on the ballot in November 2016. It would be our intent, if we have to, to help the Legislature by presenting them with a bill and the opportunity for a simple up or down vote,” he said. “If we conclude there is a proposal that would be good public policy, we’ll take that back to board in January.”

Studley said one of the nice things about a statutory initiative is that it must first go before the Legislature. But since it can’t be amended (though the Legislature can put an alternative question on the ballot), it presents a challenge of finding out exactly what voters would support and getting that message across.

And he said the Chamber supports regulating truck weights, increased efficiencies, statutory warranties, and other reforms (which have been passed by the House but some fell short in the Senate), but a permanent solution can’t be drafted from those ideas.

“We agree with the governor that we need over $1 billion to solve this problem,” Studley said. “If there is a breakthrough (in lame duck) on this … I think it’s a multi-part package.”

Ari Adler, spokesperson for House Speaker Jase Bolger (R-Marshall), said Bolger did not have a position the “hypothetical proposal” by the Chamber, and Senate Majority Leader Randy Richardville (R-Monroe) said he still thought there would be time for the Legislature to act in lame duck. Asked if he would be opposed to going to the voters on road funding, he said he was not.

“But we got sent here to do a job, so I assume finish the job,” he said.

As for the specific proposal by the Chamber that did not make accommodations for the hit that schools and local government would take by losing the revenue currently assigned to them, Richardville said, “I think (the Chamber is) right that there’s a structural problem, but we certainly are not going to sacrifice education or local government without coming up with a replacement.”

Studley said his members did not want to be in a situation where, if the Legislature does nothing before the end of the year, this issue would start all over with new players in 2015.

“Our members see this as a matter of jobs and economic competitiveness. They feel like enough is enough,” he said. “We need less talk and more action.”

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