Proposed 45-cent gas tax hike is among the nation’s highest

State Rep. Lynn Afendoulis today released the following statement on Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s proposed budget:

“Our taxpayers’ wallets are not bottomless pits that government can keep reaching in to underwrite massive projects. To suggest a 45-cent increase in our state’s gas tax adds insult to injury for Michigan drivers who already pay the highest insurance premiums in the nation. There is no way we can go from paying the highest auto insurance rates in the nation to paying both the highest auto insurance rates AND the highest gas tax in the nation.

“After all the talk on the campaign trail about fixing the darn roads, I was certain there was an innovative plan in the works. But I’m not afraid to admit when I’m wrong—and I was wrong.

“Like anyone else who drives in this state, I see the problems and agree more must be done to improve our roads—and after years of neglect, more is being done. The improvements will become more evident this spring and summer, thanks to a plan—approved in 2015—that adds more money to road repairs each year through 2021.

“I’m all about finding solutions, but I can’t support a tax like the one the governor has proposed when we haven’t seen the impact of the plan enacted just a few years ago. Repairs can’t happen all at once or we would be complaining about too many roads closed for repair—and because if we fix the roads all at once, we’ll be stuck in a cycle of fixing them all at once year after year after year.  It’s important to take all of this into consideration when we talk about funding road repairs. We need not jump headfirst into creating the highest gas tax in the nation.

“Michigan is that state that put the world on wheels, but if a tax of the magnitude suggested by Gov. Whitmer’s were to go into effect we’d soon be the state that can’t afford them. The escalating costs on Michigan’s drivers have got to stop. I am committed to finding a solution that fixes our roads and that Michigan families can afford.”