“Cities receive the smallest percentage of road funding dollars from the state formula, compared to counties and the Michigan Department of Transportation,” said Schor. “This lack of fairness in state investment is very evident in the deterioration of the roads that we drive on every day.”
Currently, the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) receives 39.1 percent of the funding for repair and maintenance of state roads, county road commissions receive 39.1 percent of the funding, and cities and villages receive 21.8 percent. Rep. Schor’s House Bill 4492 would swap the MDOT and cities/villages percentages for five years for any additional money over the level set in 2017 state road funding and adjusted for inflation. Any increases in available funding above the rate of inflation would be subject to the funding percentage flip between state roads and cities/villages. This way state road funding would not decrease.
Schor continued, “City roads are in much worse condition than state roads, and cities don’t have the general fund dollars to address these needs due to revenue sharing cuts for the last 15 years totaling almost $7 billion less in our local budgets. We see the results of this underfunding as we drive city roads every day.”
Numbers generated from the Michigan Transportation Asset Management Council dashboard support this showing that, of road miles also eligible for federal funding, 46 percent of city and village roads rate as in poor condition, while only 22 percent of state trunk line miles rate as poor.
“Changing the road funding formula for five years would give us a much needed temporary boost to help fix our city roads, which we need to attract and retain both residents and businesses,” said Rep. Schor.