Saying that Michigan’s road funding is hurtling toward a financial cliff in 2026, House Speaker-elect Rep. Matt Hall, R-Richland Twp., wants to increase road funding by $2.7 billion annually and said lawmakers should tackle the issue during December’s lame-duck legislative session.

It would, however, require bipartisan action when lawmakers return on Dec. 3, as Democrats still hold trifecta control over Lansing.

By dedicating existing tax dollars and expiring corporate handouts, Hall said his plan would invest nearly $3 billion in additional funding annually for infrastructure — including long-neglected local roads.

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“Everyone says they want to fix the roads when the cameras are on, but nobody has taken any real steps to do it these past two years,” Hall said in a release. “The people are sick and tired of inaction and empty words.”

According to Hall, general fund spending has skyrocketed by 40% — or more than $4 billion — since 2018. He contends that almost none of that increase has benefited the Wolverine State’s crumbling roads and bridges.

“State revenue has exploded in recent years and so has government spending. But what do we have to show for it?” Hall said. “Politicians spending billions of dollars every year on new projects and new programs, and then they turn around and say they have no money available for our local roads. It’s a lie.”

Hall continued: “We need to dedicate this funding off the top to keep our politicians from blowing this money year after year. You have to force people in government to do their job and do the right thing. This locks in one of the people’s top priorities and gets the biggest need done first.”

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Hall said local roads have been left behind in recent years and that his plan would immediately send $1.2 billion of corporate income tax revenue to infrastructure. It would also add $600 million in additional funding in 2026 and allocate every cent of the state’s gas tax to road funding — providing another roughly $1 billion.

The speaker-elect noted that the governor’s plan to “fix the damn roads,” which morphed into a plan in 2020 to issue $3.5 billion in bonds over six years, only supported state highway repairs. The additional 2026 funding will replace three current earmarks: $500 million for corporate incentives from the Strategic Outreach and Attraction Reserve fund, $50 million from the Revitalization and Placemaking fund, and $50 million from the Housing and Community Development Housing and Community Development fund.

The SOAR and RAP earmarks are set to expire after fiscal 2024-25, and Hall’s plan would replace that expiring allocation by sending resources to infrastructure. The end of automatic SOAR funding will force the governor and others to 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.

“This plan makes serious cuts to the rampant corporate welfare driven by the governor and redirects that funding to the communities who have been seeking aid for years,” Rep. Donni Steele said in a statement. “These local leaders have been forced to watch as their state government ignores funding requests while writing what are essentially blank checks to huge corporations with no real ties to our communities.”

Hall proposed to 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 reportedly yield about $945 million in additional resources.

“This administration’s focus on roads the past couple of years has been just on state highways,” Hall said. “We have been listening to our neighbors and local officials who know things aren’t getting fixed and that our local communities haven’t been a priority. And now things will get even worse with all of the easy money coming to an end.

“Tough decisions need to be made, and strong leaders need to step up and make them,” Hall added. “If we don’t want our roads to get even worse, we either need to raise taxes or actually make road funding a priority in the budget.”