LANSING – As he signed into law the package of bills to put into place the state’s road funding proposal, Governor Rick Snyder said the campaign ahead to win public backing for the proposed sales tax increase needs to focus on the state’s roads and how improving them could save as many as 100 lives a year.
Speaking to what he said was the largest gathering he had even seen for a bill signing, Snyder said the size of the crowd indicated the importance of the subject.
“This was great work in a bipartisan fashion,” Snyder said of the proposal.
The controversial proposal – which would increase the state’s sales tax to 7 percent, re-fashion the state’s fuel tax structure into a wholesale tax and have it take in more than the current one, change the state’s registration tax, increase funding to schools and raise the state’s Earned Income Tax Credit to 20 percent of the federal EITC – will fix the roads while not harming other sectors of the state.
Because it does call for an increase in the sales tax, the proposal must be approved by the voters at an election set for May, and Mr. Snyder called on officials and supporters to “roll up our sleeves and get to work. That’s relentless positive action.”
He acknowledged the sales tax increase will raise opposition, as opponents will call it a 17 percent tax increase. But he said the answer is: Who likes Michigan roads?
Joining Snyder at the bill signing were three of the legislative leaders that negotiated the package in December, including former Senator Majority Leader Randy Richardville and former Senate Minority Leader Gretchen Whitmer (Snyder joked that they had gotten the band back together).
Richardville rebuffed criticisms of the package and the Legislature that it had punted on a road funding proposal by putting a sales tax proposal before the voters. More than two-thirds of the Legislature voted for the proposal, Richardville said, and “if we don’t do this at this time what are we going do and when.”
“Our work is not even halfway done.” Richardville said referring to the election upcoming.
And Whitmer said that while the package was not exactly what she had would have favored, it was a matter of “do nothing or put something before the voters.”
The package represents both an investment in roads and safety, but also for schools and lower income individuals.
And Grand Rapids Public Schools Superintendent Teresa Weatherall Neal said the package could prove a huge boost to local schools, increasing funding by as much as $200 a student in the basic per pupil allowance.
Signed specifically at the ceremony was SB 847 , PA 469, which Ms. Whitmer said is the only bill of hers signed by Snyder, and which will increase the EITC from 6 percent should the proposal be approved.
Snyder rejected the argument of some critics that in the state’s overall $52 billion budget funds should be available to add to the roads. The state needs an additional $1.2 billion over time to repair and maintain the state’s roads and there is no capacity for that in Michigan’s General Fund budget.
And while the measure was supported by school officials, Snyder a bigger focus should be that fixing the roads would be an investment in saving lives. Estimates are, he said, that as many as 100 lives could be saved a year if the roads were improved.
While at this point most major business groups have not said whether they will back the package or not, Snyder said the administration has gotten good feedback and that he would meet with business groups to encourage their support.
But Snyder also said he hoped there would be a larger coalition supporting the package, including school groups, as they worked towards the May election.
Supporters now have a committee set up to back the proposal, Michigan Citizens for Better Roads and Schools. The treasurer is Howard Edelson, who managed former Governor Jennifer Granholm’s 2006 re-election campaign, the no campaign against the 2012 ballot proposal to increase the state’s renewable energy requirement and the 2014 ballot proposal to phase out the Personal Property Tax on industrial personal property.
Edelson has not returned messages.
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