LANSING – Rep. Wayne Schmidt said on Tuesday major bills to increase transportation funding for the state through an increase in registration fees and a switch to wholesale taxes on gasoline won’t see any movement until after the Legislature comes back from summer break.

“I know the governor is engaged on it, I know the quadrant has been talking about it.” said Schmidt (R-Traverse City) after a House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. “Of course my goal was to have the soup cooked by the middle of June, but it needs a few more ingredients.”

The Transportation and Infrastructure Committee did not continue any discussions on Tuesday about registration fees or a wholesale gasoline tax. The committee also did not report out any bills.

Schmidt said with other big issues underway, like the proposed Medicaid expansion, a comprehensive plan to raise an additional $1.2 billion in funding for infrastructure had to take the sideline. Still, he said he was not frustrated or disappointed in how it worked out.

“Having done this now for four years, going on my fifth year, I know that sometimes, and especially when you’re dealing with transportation, when you’re looking at a fee increase or a gas tax hike, or shifting quite frankly the way we have done business funding transportation, I knew that wasn’t going to be easy,” he said.

Schmidt also said that Medicaid reform and expansion is an important issue that needed to get done, although as of Tuesday the Senate had not voted on it (see separate story). He did say the transportation issue will become more difficult to solve as the next election year 2014 draws closer.

“Any time you get closer to an election year … you name the issue and if a member starts feeling like it could be used against he or she in a campaign, of course it becomes tougher,” he said.

Schmidt said he, along with legislative leadership, will be spending much of the summer working on the comprehensive plan to raise more funds for the state’s transportation system.

“We’ve got a lot of summer in-district work to do,” he said.

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