State Rep. Karl Bohnak on Wednesday voted in support of a transformative road funding plan that would secure key resources for communities without raising taxes. The legislation – House Bills 4180 through 4187 and HB 4230 – would annually dedicate $3.1 billion to roads, with $2.5 billion prioritized specifically to local roads. The package passed the House with bipartisan support.

“Securing long-term funding to fix and maintain our roads has basically been a pipe dream in Michigan for well over a decade now,” said Bohnak, R-Deerton. “I’m confident there is finally light at the end of a very bumpy tunnel with the plan we passed today. We know that this will not be the final roads deal – the governor and the Senate will surely jockey for some changes – but I’m proud to have played a part in the first substantive roads package to get serious consideration in years.”

The roads plan would annually rededicate $2.2 billion from the Corporate Income Tax (CIT) to roads, shifting $220 million to the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) and $1.98 billion to local roads. More specifically, $275 million is set aside for neighborhood streets like subdivisions and $100 million for decrepit bridges in local communities.

Currently, the CIT is spent on various corporate welfare initiatives. The roads plan would reallocate $50 million from wasteful or expiring grant programs and end regular funding to the Strategic Outreach and Attraction Reserve (SOAR) fund.

The roads plan also ends a generous tax deal for Michigan’s largest corporations, recouping around $500 million annually that can be reallocated to roads. The legislation increases the Michigan Business Tax (MBT) rate from 4.95% to 30%, encouraging the few corporations receiving Michigan Economic Growth Authority (MEGA) credits to forego those credits and begin filing under the CIT.

“The state’s been letting a few huge downstate businesses cheat the system for far too long,” Bohnak said. “These corporations employ people who use our roads, bring in raw materials on our roads, and ship out their product on our roads. If single mothers, union workers, and college students are all expected to help fund our roads through a gas tax at the pump, it’s only right that huge corporations pay their fair share in taxes too.”

The roads plan now moves to the Senate for further consideration.

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