Michigan lawmakers work on road fix plan, money solution for $2B to $3B price tag

LANSING (FOX 2) - Lawmakers in Lansing are working to find more money to help fix our roads. It could come at the hefty price of up to $3 billion.

The governor, House and Senate bi-partisan leaders, are on a path to release a multi-billion-dollar road fix plan.

"We're very hopeful that one is," said Lance Binoniemi, a road builder lobbyist. "We know that the four leaders and the governor have been meeting on this issue and those meetings have been relatively productive. But it's not soup yet."

But the fact that they are working on it, is a major breakthrough.

It all started with the incoming GOP House Speaker Matt Hall who wants to take money away from one special interest and give it to the road builders.

"You just take the corporations' income tax and you dedicate it to roads," Hall said.

Another piece of the GOP proposal is to eliminate the current six percent sales tax at the pump which does not go to the roads - and replace that with a gas tax hike.

This road lobbyists says this may look and feel like a tax hike, but it is not, despite the dollar amount.

"Depending on the price of fuel, (it will be) anywhere between .19 to .24 cents and that raised $1.1 to $1.2 billion," said Binoniemi. "If you eliminate the sales tax on fuel and you raise the gas tax by an eqivalent amount, it's a zero-sum revenue neutral proposal."

The term revenue neutral means it is not a tax hike.

The huge hurdle that the governor and leaders face is that some groups want to find the road money by cutting current state services in the budget, while others want to raise new tax dollars.

"So I think our leaders are doing their best to figure out how they massage that," said Binoniemi. "It's better than 50-50 I think, at this point."

He expects some movement on this in the Michigan House soon with a possible road fix coming next week.