LANSING – Senate Majority Leader Randy Richardville on Thursday said he is hopeful that people will work together and set a good tone for the next term that he will not be a part of, and that could start with a vote on a comprehensive solution to funding the state’s $1 billion-plus problem with infrastructure funding.
“I think it could be a combination of different things. … You might see a hybrid of some sort, but I’m optimistic this body in the Senate is going to move something over to the House very soon, maybe as soon as next week,” Richardville (R-Monroe) said. “We’ve decided as a caucus this is a priority. And now we’ve got our sleeves rolled up and want to get it done.”
It was not immediately clear in what form the road funding solution could come, nor was it clear for Richardville if that solution might involve reinstating certain tax credits or making accommodations for low-income persons that might be disproportionately affected, as Democrats have argued.
“The real problem is the structural problem of taxes on gasoline not going to roads but going to schools. We’re not going to sacrifice one versus the other. We need a comprehensive solution,” he said. “So by the time you get into a bigger solution, you might have to bring in some other things of homestead, property, or something for low-income people.”
But one thing he knows for sure is that the time to act is now. He said that for Senate Republicans, about two-thirds of the people are coming back, so the difference in vote tallies would be between the senators-elect (most of whom have already cast a vote on a House transportation funding package) and those that are already in the chamber.
And though he said he hadn’t quite thought about whether his odds to get something done would be better now or in the next term given the makeup of the different senators, he figured that might be the case because of the experience and familiarity with voting certain ways that senators have with their colleagues.
“This group is ready and fortified, I think,” he said. “I had people come in from out on the campaign trail and say, ‘Wow, I wish we had gotten something done by now.’ So I think the people out there want us to take it up and get it done.”
And he is hopeful that can be done in a bipartisan manner.
“A supermajority is as tough if not tougher to manage (than) a simple majority, and you’ve got to be careful that you’re reading the will of the people and not the most vocal of the people. That’s what I’d like to do is try to put a spirit of cooperation together and try to work together to solve some of these more difficult problems we have on the table,” he said. “It’s our responsibility to get them done, so I’m going to do everything I can to do that.”
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