Legislators must act now to raise transportation  dollars or take Michigan down a road to ruin. The state faces losing half its road projects -- roughly $500 million next year alone -- over the next four years because it can't make the 20% local match needed to secure federal transportation dollars.

This is no idle threat by the Michigan Department of Transportation. In fact, the wheels are already rolling to accommodate $475 million in lost federal aid next year. In metro Detroit, for example, the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments is adopting a four-year plan that will reduce spending on vital transportation projects by 63% over the next four years, from $3.8 billion to $1.4 billion. Projects dropped from metro Detroit's list include plans to rebuild seven miles of I-96 in Wayne County and resurface 10 miles of I-94 in Macomb County. Statewide, an estimated 6,000 good-paying construction jobs are at risk next year.

Legislators cannot stand by and let Michigan motorists lose hundreds of millions of dollars they send to Washington each year -- money that will now go to other states. One painful but reasonable solution, introduced in the state House, would create overdue parity between the state's gas and diesel taxes, raise vehicle registration fees, and increase the state gas tax by four cents a gallon this year and another four cents a gallon in 2013.

Taking $84 million from the state's general fund to get the local match is a temporary fix that doesn't address the long-term problem. Cutting the transportation budget further would reduce road maintenance, including snow plowing and pothole patching, to dangerous levels and close half of the state's 14 welcome centers when Michigan is trying to promote tourism.

Projects dropped from next year's transportation improvement programs can still be reinstated, but delays will add costs and complicate planning as the state tries to coordinate road work and projects to minimize driver inconvenience. MDOT normally starts bidding next year's projects in October.

Letting hundreds of millions of dollars for needed transportation projects -- and the thousands of jobs they create -- go to other states is a shameful legacy for any legislator to leave Michigan.

http://www.freep.com/article/20100731/OPINION01/7310316/Find-money-for-road-projects-now