LANSING – The Michigan Senate passed a supplemental appropriations bill Thursday for the current fiscal year addressing funding road maintenance, what is expected to be a major cost after the long hard winter with extreme temperatures.

SB 608 cleared the Senate on a 32-6 vote, with Sen. Darwin Booher (R-Evart), Sen. Jack Brandenburg (R-Harrison Township), Sen. Patrick Colbeck (R-Canton Township), Sen. Joe Hune (R-Hamburg), Sen. Phil Pavlov (R-St. Clair) and Sen. John Proos (R-St. Joseph) voting in opposition.

One of the chief components of the supplemental is $100 million pulled from the Roads and Risks Reserve Fund to provide additional funding for road winter maintenance in response to the harsh winter. If approved, the fund would have about $13 million remaining ($2 million was also pulled from the fund through a previous amendment to the bill for ice storm cleanup).

But that appropriation has not been without controversy, as Senate Majority Leader Randy Richardville (R-Monroe) and Governor Rick Snyder have recently said they are unsure if $100 million is the right amount. Richardville did vote for the bill, however.

After session, Richardville defended his position on that point.

“The thing that I was concerned about is there was still a lot of competition for that money and I didn’t want to set people up to think $100 (million) is going to be rubber-stamped all the way through,” he said. “We’ll still have the governor and the other chamber to deal with. We’ll see if they want to spend the same amount we do, but we sent a message as to where we are.”

Richardville added that he could not ascertain what the final total might be, but Sen. Roger Kahn (R-Saginaw Township), chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, was adamant about the $100 million when asked about it after his committee reported this bill hours before the Senate voted on it (on a 10-3 vote, with Colbeck, Proos and Booher in opposition). Kahn said he spoke to Sen. John Pappageorge (R-Troy), chair of the Senate Appropriations Transportation Subcommittee, who felt that $100 million was the right number.

“(Mr. Pappageorge is) an open-minded man, and if the case is made to him and to me by the majority leader, the speaker, the folks in the House and the administration, we’ll listen,” Kahn said.

The move to include $100 million in the supplemental for winter road maintenance was applauded by county road agencies and the Michigan Association of Counties.

“Our 83 county road agencies are pleased with the Michigan Senate’s recognition of the financial challenges they’ve faced this winter, and hope the Michigan House quickly follows suit,” said Denise Donohue, director of the County Road Association of Michigan, in a statement.

Many road agencies have exceeded the entire year’s winter maintenance budget due to frequent heavy snowfall, blowing winds, ice storms and single-digit temperatures. The funds will help defray costs for county road agencies to continue plowing snow and patching potholes without having to make major cuts to summer maintenance, the group said.

“We recognize that the damage to Michigan roads is going to be the worst in many years and while we still support a permanent increase in funding, we appreciate the Senate taking steps in the right direction,” said MAC Deputy Director, Steve Currie, in a statement. “This funding will go a long way in helping locals with the growing pothole problem, and we anticipate members of the House and the governor will realize the need as well.”

This story was provided by Gongwer News Service. To subscribe, click on Gongwer.Com