“The $1.2 billion, seven-bill roads funding package that was passed by the Senate and presented to the House yesterday for concurrence is still woefully inadequate.
“It still creates a burden for the people of my district (and all Michiganians) with an increase in registration fees on top of an increase in the gas tax. While the current iteration is lower than the 40 percent increase proposed previously, a 20 percent increase is still too much when we are asking our constituents to pay more at the pump. While increasing gas taxes to a sustainable level is a good idea, increasing both the gas tax and registration fees will hit our most financially vulnerable residents hardest.
“Additionally, this package doesn’t do enough to lower the weights on the heavy trucks that do the most damage to our roads, nor does it adequately fund public transportation.
“Further, having all of these bills tie-barred to a possible (yet elusive) tax cut does not make sense either and public safety, education and health care funding are still possibly all at risk from cuts to the general fund.
“Worst of all, our roads continue to deteriorate underneath us and will continue to do so for years because this new package won’t take full effect until 2021! Delayed activity is the main reason for our current fiasco, and it is the greatest cost of all in this ill-conceived package of bills. This is why I voted no on concurrence with the package that was presented to us.”