Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder plans to deliver his proposal for improving the state's roads and broadband accessibility next Wednesday afternoon at Lawrence Technological University in Southfield.

Snyder has said for months that he'd deliver the speech in October, but had not set a date. Snyder communications director Geralyn Lasher gave the information to The Associated Press on Thursday.

In his Southfield speech, the Republican governor is expected to discuss improvements he wants to make in roads and bridges, sewer and water systems, broadband and other public infrastructure.

Snyder told reporters on Tuesday that he plans to discuss how to balance the state's tight budget constraints with a growing list of fixes that need to be made to aging infrastructure.

"The challenge with that is how do you do that in a thoughtful way, in a way that works in a difficult economic time," he said. "So that's one of the questions that I'll be addressing here . . . so we can have a public dialogue on that subject matter, and try to come up with a solution that works for all of us."

Business and road groups have been lobbying for years for Michigan to raise more money for roads through higher taxes on gasoline and diesel sales or higher vehicle registration fees, among other ideas. None of the plans has made it past a Legislature reluctant to raise taxes in a down economy.

Wednesday's speech is one of a series Snyder has delivered or plans to deliver on ways to change the way Michigan does business. In March, he laid out new initiatives for local governments, in April he presented a sweeping set of changes he wanted to see in education and last month he addressed health and wellness issues. He plans to talk about his talent and job training initiatives in November.

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