LANSING – If the top officials in the Department of Transportation want to be paid, they will have to complete the Gateway Project at the Ambassador Bridge by the end of the current fiscal year under the budget reported from the House Appropriations Transportation Subcommittee.

The subcommittee instead gets federal match funds from yet-to-be-enacted sales tax changes.

But the budget could potentially be a few hundred thousand dollars lighter if the department does not complete the connections between the Ambassador Bridge and local expressways by October 1. Boilerplate in the bill would prohibit pay and benefits to the unclassified positions in the department until the project is done.

The budget was reported to full committee on a 5-1 vote, with Rep. Richard LeBlanc (D-Westland) the opposition vote, though both he and Rep. Brandon Dillon (D-Grand Rapids) raised concerns about assuming revenue from the sales tax changes, which would dedicate some of the sales tax on motor fuels to transportation, in the budget before they have been enacted.

The general fund included in the bill would provide $12 million for transit capital, including new buses, and $11 million for rail.

The federal highway match would come from $100 million in state trunkline funds expected to be generated from the sales tax change. That legislation (SB 351 ) passed the Senate on Tuesday and is scheduled for consideration in the House Transportation Committee on Wednesday.

Transit systems would also be encouraged to move toward more self-sufficiency, or at least more efficiency, by giving preference to those systems that get at least 20 percent of their funding from fares. But the language is expected to be revised to be clear that transit systems would not have to meet the 20 percent fare box mark to be eligible for funds and to clarify how such revenue as local millage would factor into that goal.

The Aeronautics Fund would see some additional revenue in the budget. In addition to money projected from redirecting sales tax on aviation fuel into the fund, the budget would require the state to sell one of its two Beechcraft King Air planes. Rep. David Agema (R-Grandville) said the two planes the state has are underused compared to corporate standards, so there was no need to have both.

But he acknowledged an upcoming report on use of state-owned aircraft could affect that call to sell one of the planes. He said, however, that the department had also apparently increased the use of the planes after he asked about their use.

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