Hundreds of Michigan road and bridge repair projects would be scrapped over the next five years, if Gov. Rick Snyder and lawmakers can’t find the state money required to match available federal highway aid, a construction industry review finds.
Snyder, who said last week says he’s not going to raise the gas tax or other fees motorists pay for state and local road repair, will have to lay out next month in his 2012 budget how he intends to come up with the $160 million required to match all available federal highway aid.
If Michigan falls short, more than $500 million, 42 percent of the amount Michigan will receive from the feds in 2011, would be in peril.
In their response to the Michigan Department of Transportation’s proposed five-year planning document, road advocates say only 30 percent of the state’s highways would be in good condition by 2019 without the federal aid. The system was rated 90-percent good condition in 2010.
Even if Snyder and the MDOT director he’s carrying over from the Granholm administration, Kirk Steudle, find the matching cash, the system would deteriorate to 50 percent in good condition unless additional state cash is raised.
"MDOT's draft five-year plan merely highlights what Michigan drivers feel in their bones every time their cars hit a pothole –Michigan’s roads and bridges are failing and the state isn’t investing enough to maintain them," Mike Nystrom, executive vice president of the Michigan Infrastructure and Transportation Association, said Tuesday.
Michigan is already a donor state in that it receives only 92 cents back from Washington for every $1 dollar in federal gas tax it sends.
Without the match, half of the state’s planned trunkline highway repair projects over the next five years, 93 project totaling 319 miles, would be scrapped. The result: Only 275 miles of highway repair, 55 miles annually, would tackled over the next five years, according to MITA.
By 2015, pavement conditions revert back to 1998 levels. That means the state will quickly give back the gains it has made over the past dozen years through the 1997 gas tax hike, ample borrowing and an influx of federal stimulus dollars.
Between 2006 and 2011, MDOT repaired an average of 240 bridges annually. Over the next five years, that number would drop to 70 annually. Some 600 of 950 bridge repairs and maintenance projects would delayed.
Snyder last week vowed that the state would match all available federal revenue, but declined to say how it would be done. It's expected the Steudle will scour MDOT's budgets for administration, planning and real estate purchases to find the money. Federal aid in 2011 was matched though a combination of cuts in maintenance and the one-time refinancing of MDOT debt.
“We will close that gap. We will get our federal funds and that will be part of our review of the overall budget,” Snyder said last week. But he said, “this is not the time to be dealing with tax increases.”
Snyder last week vowed that the state would match all available federal revenue, but declined to say how it would be done. It's expected the Steudle will scour MDOT's budgets for administration, planning and real estate purchases to find the money. Federal aid in 2011 was matched though a combination of cuts in maintenance and the one-time refinancing of MDOT debt.
“We will close that gap. We will get our federal funds and that will be part of our review of the overall budget,” Snyder said last week. But he said, “this is not the time to be dealing with tax increases.”
http://www.mlive.com/politics/index.ssf/2011/01/snyder_will_have_to_scramble_t.html