State Rep. Matthew Bierlein today underscored a new plan from House Speaker-elect Matt Hall that prioritizes fixing local roads and bridges without raising taxes.

By dedicating existing tax dollars and expiring corporate handouts, Hall’s plan would invest nearly $3 billion in additional funding for infrastructure each year, including long-neglected local roads. The targeted investment proposal comes as general fund spending has grown by more than $4 billion since 2018 — a 40% increase — with almost none of that increase going toward Michigan’s crumbling roads and bridges.

“This plan puts needed emphasis on infrastructure people use every day from driveway to highway,” said Bierlein, of Vassar. “I talk with people across our region who want to see more attention on that pothole they have to drive around while they’re running errands or taking their kids to school, or there’s a street in their neighborhood that hasn’t seen repairs in years. Addressing these concerns takes action and dedicated resources, and this is something both sides of the aisle should be working on to get done for communities and residents.

“It’s hard to believe that state spending has grown to where it is and yet Lansing still seemingly doesn’t have two nickels to rub together for local infrastructure.”

The plan would:

• Immediately dedicate $1.2 billion of annual corporate income tax (CIT) revenue for infrastructure, with the most resources going to local road agencies. County and city roads have been left behind in recent years, with the governor’s $3.5 billion in bonds over six years only supporting state highway repairs. This new dedicated funding will ensure local roads get needed resources.

• Beginning in FY 2025-2026, dedicate the rest of the $600 million in annual CIT revenue for infrastructure. This funding will utilize existing funding by replacing three current earmarks: $500 million for the Strategic Outreach and Attraction Reserve Fund that pays for corporate incentives, $50 million for the Revitalization and Placemaking Fund, and $50 million for the Housing and Community Development Fund. The SOAR and RAP earmarks are set to expire after FY 2024-2025 anyway, so Hall’s plan would replace that expiring allocation by dedicating more resources for roads. The end of automatic SOAR funding will force the governor and others to actually make a good case for new incentive funding after recent projects have wasted billions of dollars, handed taxpayer dollars to Chinese-affiliated ventures, and created few jobs.

• Replace the 6% sales tax on motor fuel with a corresponding revenue-neutral increase in the motor fuel tax, which exclusively supports infrastructure funding. This will yield about $945 million in additional resources. The plan would also hold school funding harmless from the decrease in sales tax revenue.

Bierlein noted that urgency is needed as road funding in Michigan is hurtling toward a financial cliff in 2026, with federal infrastructure dollars drying up and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s debt-funded state highway spending expiring. With a lack of sufficient funding, work will halt, road builders will be sidelined, and degraded roads will continue to deteriorate.

Local roads, which received none of the state’s borrowed funds, are especially in need of support, and their funding situation will only grow more difficult in coming years without reforms.