Are roads a priority?

In an apparent step backward from the recent progress made with US-127, the House today voted to cut $12 million that had been set aside by Sen. Roger Kahn to help with the highway’s completion. As a result, Rep. Paul Opsommer offered an amendment to direct MDOT to fully complete the project, but the amendment was gaveled down by House leadership.

“This was a surprise, as we just had what I thought was a positive meeting with the governor’s office on this and I thought we had a good chance that they would not use the line item veto on the US-127 funds as has happened in the past,” said Opsommer. “But something has obviously changed, and the House vote today has at least temporarily undone the good work that Roger did in the Senate.”

Opsommer ended up voting “no” on the Transportation Budget after he was not allowed to speak and his amendment to restore US-127 funding was gaveled down. Opsommer said he also voted “no” because the budget took up to $18 million for the Transportation Economic Development Fund and redirected it instead to the General Fund for non-road purposes.

“It makes no sense to say on the one hand that we don’t have enough money for roads and then turn around and give some of the limited road money we do have to the general fund,” said Opsommer. “Transportation Economic Development dollars are generated from driver’s license fees and are supposed to be used for financing road and street projects specifically in support of economic growth. State government first has to show it places a high priority on roads if we expect taxpayers to do the same; we should not be diverting money from taxes on gasoline, licenses, or registration fees to other things.”

Opsommer has introduced HB 5075 in the House to help constitutionally protect road dollars. Tax revenue that is formally protected in the constitution is not available to be diverted for other purposes.