LANSING – Michigan Chamber of Commerce CEO Rich Studley recognizes that it’s an election year and the Legislature has tackled other important issues so far, but to use those as excuses for not finding a comprehensive solution on funding transportation as the state enters what is expected to be one of the worst pothole seasons in years is “indefensible,” he says.

“In the past there’s always been some excuse. Now there’s ‘the price of gas is too high,’ ‘it’s an election year, we’ll wait until after the election,’ ‘there’s another high priority issue we’ll deal with this later,'” Studley said in a phone interview Friday. “The time has come to tackle this problem.”

Studley has been hitting Twitter hard in the last week, listing tweet after tweet about how the Legislature needs to act sooner rather than later to fund the roads before the problem is magnified even more in the spring and roads begin their annual crumble. And due to the extreme weather the state has had this winter, those roads are expected to be in some of the worst condition in years, Studley said.

“It will be horrendous,” he said. “The local street in my neighborhood … is being held together by ice.”

And talk about including money for snow removal in a budget supplemental gives reason for even greater concern, he said: The money for road salt comes from the same budget that funds creating and placing asphalt.

“A supplemental just borrows from Peter to pay Paul. It doesn’t solve the problem. It’s a temporary Band-Aid to what’s becoming a gaping wound,” he said. “Every day people are figuring out that this is a shell game. There’s a real cost to inaction. One of the things we’re genuinely concerned about is we hope it won’t take a serious accident, a critical bridge failure like we’ve seen in other states, before the Legislature takes action.”

Ever since Governor Rick Snyder began calling for $1.2 billion in new revenues annually to better maintain the state’s roads in late 2011, the public mood has been apathetic. Even the resolutely optimistic Snyder acknowledged last year that public appetite for acting on roads might not be strong.

Now there are signs that is changing.

The Lansing polling firm EPIC/MRA released a poll earlier this week in which it asked voters what one item they would want to see the approximately $1 billion in surplus revenues the state is seeing through the 2014-15 fiscal year. The top choice was K-12 schools at 38 percent, but right behind was roads at 36 percent.

Asked if this is the worst he’s seen a Legislature handle the decades-old problem of better funding the roads, Studley said, “It’s clearly taken much longer than it should have for lawmakers to recognize there’s a problem, and the situation was not allowed to get this bad before the Legislature took action last time.”

Perhaps most telling was Studley using his Twitter feed to note that the poll showed voters far more interested in putting the surplus toward roads than tax relief considering the Chamber’s traditional support for tax cuts.

Studley said “to be fair,” Governor Rick Snyder and current lawmakers have done a lot of good things, and especially Snyder’s continued proposals for increasing funding, “but enough is enough. This is obviously the next major issue that needs to be addressed.”

He said the roads being a problem is not just an issue for ordinary motorists, either. Good, safe roads and bridges are critical for the agricultural industry to transport its goods in and out of the state, and despite a “wonderful” Pure Michigan campaign, Studley said, poor roads have an effect on tourism as well.

“It makes no sense at all that lawmakers spend millions on a wonderful Pure Michigan campaign … only to have (guests) think they’ve arrived in some backwards state with poor roads and a bad transportation system,” he said.

Good infrastructure is critical to keeping the auto industry moving at its on-the-go pace, and the construction industry is “slowly bleeding to death” as they go out of business or, to survive, relocate or expand in other states, Studley said. “They have to leave because of a lack of work they are willing and able to do (in Michigan).”

And all of that combines to make Michigan less competitive as surrounding states do address their infrastructure funding issues, he said.

Studley said conversations continue with lawmakers and he is optimistic that a resolution will be reached. Lance Binoniemi, vice president of government affairs for the Michigan Infrastructure and Transportation Association, said he too remained optimistic.

“I never say never, and I never say it’s going to guaranteed be done by a certain date,” he said. “If all of our members don’t have hope, then no one will have hope. So I don’t try to say definitely one way or another, and I don’t think anyone can.”

Much like Studley, Binoniemi said the best legislative action comes after an outcry from the public, and that may just be the key this spring.

“I certainly think we’re going to enter into one of the worst conditions of our roads in decades. That public outcry is going to be really important for them to come to the table and find solutions,” he said. “I’m hopeful they’ll listen to the public and they’ll understand there’s a significant need.”

Still, that support from lawmakers or the general public remains an issue, as it has been for at least eight years, Binoniemi said.

“Unlike some of the other issues that generate a public outcry, roads and bridges aren’t sexy. I don’t think it really brings out that action from general citizens to contact their lawmakers unless they’ve been in an accident because of a poor road, or they have a family who has been killed or, as we’re seeing right now, have a lot of extra vehicle costs because of poor roads.”

But Studley made it clear he would not be backing down on the matter: “We’re going to get this done one way or the other. We’re committed to it, and we’re going to get it done.”

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