Detroit Free Press
10:50 AM, January 20, 2012
By Paul Egan
Detroit Free Press Lansing Bureau
LANSING – Politicians abdicate their responsibility when they pledge they will never vote to increase taxes, the lobbyist for a group pushing for a $1.4-billion annual boost in road funding said Friday.
Mike Nystrom, executive vice president of the Michigan Infrastructure and Transportation Association, said such pledges and no-new-taxes mind-sets are among the biggest obstacles in a push to approve a package of bills to provide more money to fix and maintain Michigan roads and bridges.
Nystrom backs a plan that would raise an extra $500 million to $600 million by hiking motor vehicle registration fees by about $60 on average; raise about $500 million by taxing wholesale gasoline sales, divert about $100 million in Michigan sales tax revenue to roads and collect another $200 million to $250 million by removing various “loopholes” in vehicle registration fee collections.
Bills with bipartisan support containing measures similar to those are expected to be introduced soon at the Capitol in Lansing, Nystrom said during a Friday taping of “Off the Record” hosted byTim Skubick on public TV’s WKAR... FULL ARTICLE
Posted on
Fri, January 20, 2012
by John Cox