PRIORITIES FOR LAWMAKERS

Infrastructure

The issue: Michigan is spending big on infrastructure, thanks to state borrowing, coronavirus rescue funds, higher-than-expected tax revenues and a federal infrastructure package. But the funding is still short of what is needed after decades of underinvestment.

Where Michigan stands: e state’s roads are a poster child for what happens when policymakers wait too long to do something. Even after the passage of a 2015 law that raised fuel tax and vehicle registration fees to x roads and bridges, a state commission a year later found that an additional $2.2 billion was needed annually. Pavement conditions are projected to deteriorate over the next decade.

What is next: Gov. Gretchen Whitmer will not pursue another gas tax increase after her proposed 45-cents-a-gallon hike stalled in 2019. e state has been selling $3.5 billion in bonds to nance new construction projects and accelerate others between 2020 and 2024. And it is getting $300 million to $330 million additional federal highway dollars per year through the infrastructure law.

e Michigan Infrastructure & Transportation Association, a construction trade group, has commissioned a report to assess how much new spending is needed. Vice President of Government A airs Lance Binoniemi said the study, which may be released in February or March, will likely show the need is higher than the $2.2 billion identi ed more than seven years ago.

“ e Legislature has taken a little bit of an eye o the ball on road funding because the governor put in the bonding program and because the feds came up with a new infrastructure plan,” he said. “But we have not solved the problem by any means. … We’re trying to make up for decades of lost revenues, and you just don’t x that over a veyear bonding program or a ve-year infrastructure program out of the feds.”

Policymakers could begin to more seriously consider the long-term viability of declining fuel tax revenues helping to pay for roads amid the transition toward electric vehicles and more fuel-e cient cars like hybrids.

EVs make up about 5 percent of new vehicle sales in the U.S. S&P Global Mobility expects their share of auto sales to reach 8 percent in 2023, 15 percent by 2025 and 37 percent by 2030.

Commentary

Other ideas:

Some states have optional pilot programs that charge motorists based on miles driven. Implementing something broadly would be complicated and appears to be a ways o , but groups representing road agencies, municipalities and public transit interests are starting to warn of an impending crisis.

EV drivers now pay an extra registration fee annually. Critics allege they are not paying their share compared to people who are taxed at the pump, while others say the fee discourages EV purchases at a time the state should be providing incentives the other way.