State lawmakers need to find money — one way or another — to match federal highway funds

This spring, Michigan's highway system again is at risk in the state legislature. Lawmakers who should be taking decisive action to assure the state will become a transportation leader instead are dragging their heels on the road repair budget. They're reluctant to approve a Canadian bridge deal Gov. Rick Snyder has wrung from the federal government or come up with an alternative that will assure long-term funding for the state's deteriorating infrastructure.

Last week, state House and Senate appropriations subcommittees approved tentative 2012 transportation budget plans that would substitute $50 million in supposed toll credits from existing state bridges for the $550 million in Canadian government money Snyder wants to use as Michigan's share of the cost for a proposed new international bridge linking Detroit and Windsor, Ontario.

The problem with the subcommittees' strategy is there's no certainty toll credits could be used as matching funds needed for Michigan to get its full annual allotment of federal transportation dollars in 2012 and beyond. Snyder, on the other hand, already has a deal with federal officials that would allow the state to draw federal road repair dollars based on Canada's $550 million.

Lack of a promised Canadian bridge bill from the Snyder administration was cited by subcommittee leaders as the reason for last week's action. To assume approval of the new international bridge deal as part of the next transportation budget at this point is an unacceptable risk, they said.

True, the legislation needed to cement the proposed bridge deal with Canada has been long in the making. But the action taken by subcommittee members probably is more of a reflection of pressure from opponents than anything else. Ambassador Bridge owner Matty Moroun is spending heavily on a lobbying and advertising campaign against it.

The proposed international bridge offers the prospect of an almost immediate shot in the arm for Metro Detroit in the form of some 10,000 new jobs and improved commerce across the Detroit River in the heart what's already America's busiest trade corridor. Many lawmakers are reluctant to green-light it, however, because they fear it would create an uncertain future for Moroun's privately owned span.

If the Legislature is bent on scuttling the deal Snyder has worked out, then it is obligated to come up with another source of revenue to produce the state match needed for federal road money. Billions of dollars in road repair funds are at stake over the next several years. Even assuming the Canadian bridge deal were approved, the state would have $300 million less to spend on road repairs in 2012 than this year, according to a state Transportation Department projection.

A coalition of business and public policy groups repeatedly has recommended a gradual increase in the 19-cents-a-gallon state gasoline tax to raise more state matching money. Unfortunately, lawmakers have shown reticence toward that idea, too, by ignoring it for the last several years.

This is a time for members of the House and Senate to step up and show some courage. Snyder has laid out a bold vision for getting Michigan in better shape for the future. Nothing could be more detrimental to his plan than allowing the state's roads to continue crumbling.

http://www.detnews.com/article/20110418/OPINION01/104180309/1008/Our-editorial--Quit-stalling-on-roads