LANSING – Long-stymied efforts to increase funding for Michigan’s battered roads won a momentous victory Thursday in the Senate with the passage of legislation that hopes to eventually raise more than $1 billion through doubling the gasoline tax.

It took several attempts on an updated version of the bill it last attempted to pass in June that would phase in a new percentage-based gasoline tax that eventually brings the new levy to 15.5 percent of the wholesale price.

The current tax on gasoline is 19 cents per gallon and the fuel tax on diesel is 15 cents per gallon and those would be replaced by the new tax. Beginning April 1, 2015, and January 1 of each year thereafter, the Department of Treasury would determine the rate of taxation on gasoline and diesel fuel by multiplying the average wholesale price by the applicable percentage and rounding to the nearest one-tenth of one cent.

A similar version of the bill failed in June when it was last taken up by a vote of 17-21. And tipping the scale on Thursday was again an uphill battle, as it took one non-roll call and two roll call votes to even adopt the substitute to put the proposal before the Senate for a formal vote. Several Democrats held out at first, including Sen. Morris Hood III (D-Detroit), who switched from being a no vote on the non-roll call vote to not voting at all on the first roll call, as well as Sen. Hoon-Yung Hopgood (D-Taylor), Sen. Bert Johnson (D-Highland Park), Sen. Rebekah Warren (D-Ann Arbor) and Sen. Coleman Young II (D-Detroit).

Senate Majority Floor Leader Arlan Meekhof (R-West Olive) moved to reconsider the vote by which the substitute failed to win adoption. About an hour later, Meekhof moved to reconsider again, and this time the substitute was adopted without a roll call vote. The chamber moved very quickly into voting on final passage, where the bill passed 23-14, with Sen. John Moolenaar (R-Midland) absent from session. Hopgood was one of two Democrats who maintained opposition to the bill, the other being Sen. Glenn Anderson (D-Westland).

Republicans who voted to oppose the bill were Sen. Jack Brandenburg of Harrison Township, Sen. Bruce Caswell of Hillsdale, Sen. Patrick Colbeck of Canton Township, Sen. Mike Green of Mayville, Sen. Dave Hildenbrand of Lowell, Sen. Joe Hune of Whitmore Lake, Sen. Mark Jansen of Gaines Township, Sen. Rick Jones of Grand Ledge, Sen. Phil Pavlov of St. Clair Township, Sen. John Proos of St. Joseph, Sen. Dave Robertson of Grand Blanc and Sen. Tory Rocca of Sterling Heights.

Those who voted to support the bill were Sen. Jim Ananich (D-Flint), Sen. Steve Bieda (D-Warren), Sen. Darwin Booher (R-Evart), Sen. Tom Casperson (R-Escanaba), Sen. Judy Emmons (R-Sheridan), Sen. Vincent Gregory (D-Southfield), Sen. Goeff Hansen (R-Hart), Hood, Senate Minority Floor Leader Tupac Hunter (D-Detroit), Johnson, Sen. Roger Kahn (R-Saginaw Township), Sen. Mike Kowall (R-White Lake Township), Sen. Jim Marleau (R-Lake Orion), Meekhof, Sen. Mike Nofs (R-Battle Creek), Sen. John Pappageorge (R-Troy), Senate Majority Leader Randy Richardville (R-Monroe), Sen. Tonya Schuitmaker (R-Lawton), Sen. Virgil Smith (D-Detroit), Sen. Howard Walker (R-Traverse City), Warren, Senate Minority Leader Gretchen Whitmer (D-East Lansing) and Mr. Young.

Ten Democrats and 13 Republicans formed the supporting coalition.

Richardville, speaking to reporters, said he believes many of the legislators went back to their districts over the summer and heard overwhelming cries to do something about the roads, much like he did. But he also said part of increasing that vote came in the form of an amendment to another road-related bill that passed, SB 281 , which would allow the city of Detroit to have a little more flexibility with mass transit money.

“So we looked to see if … more dollars are generated for the city of Detroit, then they could put more money into mass transit than they do today,” Richardville said. “So several of the people from Detroit changed their mind once they realized that was the case.”

SB 281 itself creates a movable bridge fund and requires oversight of publicly-owned movable bridges by the Department of Transportation. Sen. Virgil Smith (D-Detroit), sponsor of the amendment, said it would allow for a city that has transit riders over 10 million to use 20 percent of the revenue received for busing. The amendment was adopted and the bill eventually passed 30-6.

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