This week the Senate Transportation Subcommittee passed SB 148 and the House Transportation Subcommittee passed HB 4242. Each of these bills appropriates just over $4.3 Billion in transportation revenue to MDOT, counties and cities and villages. Each of these budgets has a baseline appropriation of $491.2 million dedicated to cities and villages. This is an increase of $49.6 million over the current fiscal year.

SB 148 would create a grant based program that appropriates an additional $3.1 million to assist villages with a population under 2000 with resurfacing costs. Grants would be equal to 75% of an individual projects cost and could not exceed $250,000. The Transportation Asset Management Council would administer the grant program and would prioritize projects based on the greatest return on total infrastructure value.

HB 4242 would also dedicate addition resources to local roads by allocating $10 million from the Transportation Economic Development Fund and $2 million from the Local Agency Wetland Mitigation Fund. This would result in an additional $7.9 million for county road commissions and $4.1 million for cities and villages.

These bills are is still a work in progress. The budget is expected to be complete by June 1st so we are at the beginning not the end of the process. As the budget moves forward the differences between the two bill will need to be worked out. The League will continue to track these bills and provide you with ongoing updates as they forward.

John LaMacchia is the Assistant Director of State and Federal Affairs for the League handling transportation, infrastructure, energy and environment issues. He can be reached at [email protected] or 517-908-0303.