Inside 208

The U.S. Department of Transportation has announced $473.8 million in TIGER grant funds to be awarded for projects that will have a significant impact on the Nation, a metropolitan area, or a region. Applications open on Monday, April 29 and final applications are due by June 3, 2013.   No pre-application [...]

Sunday, it emerged that the White House will  be nominating Charlotte, North Carolina Mayor Anthony Foxx for Secretary of the Department of Transportation. Foxx has been Mayor since 2009. Prior to being elected Mayor, he served on City Council beginniing in 2005, where he chaired the Transportation Committee. Summer Minnick [...]

This week House Tourism Committee took testimony on House Bill 4299 sponsored by Representative Bumstead. This legislation would allow for Counties, Townships, and Municipalities, to adopt ordinances to allow for the use of ORVs on roads under their jurisdiction. The League supports this bill in concept but is working with [...]

The Michigan Municipal League would like to encourage members to attend town hall meetings on transportation funding in your area. This issue remains front and center in the legislature and we have an opportunity to help shape the conversation. It is important that individual legislators hear from you on this [...]

This week the House of Representatives spent a majority of their time amending and passing budget bills. The legislature has yet to come to an agreement on how to raise the $1.2 billion in new funding that Governor Snyder has requested for roads. Representative Pat Summerville was able to pass [...]

In a call with the League today, an official from the White House confirmed that the federal government will be reducing their committed payments on interest of the Build America Bonds. They are expecting the reductions to be about 9% below their original committment. These would apply across the board [...]

The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, chaired by Representative Wayne Schmidt, took testimony today on three House Bills. House Bill 4358 and 4359 would remove the gas and diesel tax that is paid at the pump and change that to a percentage based tax charged on the wholesale price. House [...]

Today the Senate Appropriations Transportation Subcommittee voted out the fiscal year 2013-14 transportation budget without the $1.2 billion the Governor has proposed in new funding. Senator Papageorge, Chairman of the subcommittee, explained that the debate on new funding was still ongoing and that he is committed finding a way to [...]

Licensing and Regulatory Affairs (LARA) Bureau of Fire Services will begin the enforcement of the Class A, B, and C Owner/Operator (O/O) certification requirements on April 15, 2013. Posted below is further information on this issue provided by LARA or for more information on underground storage tank owner/operator training and [...]

In consultation with the Michigan Municipal League and the County Road Association of Michigan, MDOT had revised the culvert and storm sewer pipe material policy on federally funded local agency projects. With the passage of MAP-21, MDOT will return autonomy to the Local Agencies for the selection of pipe material. [...]