Transportation

Whitmer Transpo pick: Additional $1.5B Needed to Fix Michigan's Roads

February 06, 2019, 6:55 AM

The additional funding for road repairs approved by lawmakers in 2015 falls far short of what Michigan actually needs, Michigan's new transportation director Paul Ajegba told state senators Tuesday.

The Detroit News reports that Ajegba, the transportation department veteran tapped by Whitmer to help fulfill her chief campaign promise, says an additional $1.5 billion is needed.

The state is phasing in more money for road and bridge repairs, but the extra amount won't reach $1.2 billion a year until 2021.

Legislators were led to believe in 2015 that MDOT only needed $1.2 billion, said Sen. Tom Barrett, chairman for the transportation and infrastructure committee. When the department asks for more before the spending plan even reaches its 2021 implementation, “it wears away that trust” with lawmakers, the Potterville Republican said.

Ajegba challenged that characterization, noting that MDOT needed $1.2 billion at the time for state trunk lines alone. But when the $1.2 billion allocation began to be shared with communities through Public Act 51, more than 60 percent of the funding was siphoned off for county and city roads.

Ajegba urged senators to find a way to increase funding and "make sure it stays there." He cautioned against bonding for the money.

A coalition of former lawmakers last week proposed a 47-cents-per-gallon gas tax increase, phased in over nine years, to fix Michigan’s deteriorating roads. The recently formed Michigan Consensus Policy Project (MPCC) released a report that concludes the price tag for repairing and rebuilding the roads is $2.7 billion a year, and that 47 cents per gallon is the only way to raise that kind of money.


Read more:  The Detroit News


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