Gas Tax

By all accounts, electric vehicles are the future.  Right now, EV’s comprise a small percentage of the automotive marketplace.  A new study from the Ecology Center in Ann Arbor shows the electric vehicles owners are paying far more in taxes and fees and that can serve as a disincentive to purchase.  The center’s Charles Griffith joined WEMU’s David Fair for this week’s "Issues of the Environment" to share the study’s findings and discuss the need to create policy that will create tax parity for EV vehicles. 

The State Transportation Commission has given the go-ahead to Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s plan to sell bonds to finance Michigan’s most urgently needed road repairs.  But, as we hear from Rick Pluta, she says bonding does not solve the entire problem.

Governor Gretchen Whitmer says she’s ready to go-it-alone to come up with money to pay for road repairs.  That’s if Republicans won’t support her proposal for a fuel tax increase.  That was the message Whitmer delivered in her second State of the State speech last night.  We have more from Rick Pluta.

Governor Gretchen Whitmer is expected to sign budget bills today and avert a partial shutdown of state government at midnight.  But, as we hear Rick Pluta, it’s not “game over” for the governor’s request for more money to fix roads. 

Governor Gretchen Whitmer has again called on Republican leaders to reconvene the Legislature to wrap up work on a new state budget and a plan to fix the roads.

The state Department of Transportation has just released a new five-year plan to maintain and fix Michigan’s roads.  We have more from Rick Pluta.

Four months after taking office, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer painted a not-so-pretty picture of Michigan’s infrastructure and education system, while speaking to a group of Ann Arbor area business and community leaders on the Eastern Michigan University campus.

The state House Transportation Committee meets today to continue hearings on fixing roads. 

Former state House Speaker Curtis Hertel is being remembered today as a leader whose willingness to compromise helped lead to a historic overhaul of how Michigan pays for public schools.  He died over the weekend at the age of 63.

Democrats in the state House won’t support big budget cuts for roads if it’s not clear where they’d come from.

Gov. Snyder urges state House to pass gas tax increase for roads

State lawmakers have just nine or ten more session days in 2014, and still no consensus on how to raise money to help fix Michigan's roads.

With the Legislature's "lame duck" session about to start up in earnest on Tuesday, Gov. Rick Snyder spent Monday promoting a specific road funding plan at events in Detroit and Southfield.