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Snyder urges raising sales tax for roads and bridges
 


By SHELLY STRAUTZ-SPRINGBORN
Michigan Correspondent

LANSING, Mich. — Gov. Rick Snyder declared food and agriculture “critically important” during his fifth annual State of the State Address Jan. 20. “You have been a shining star for us during the difficult years,” he said.
Speaking to a joint session of the state legislature in the Michigan Capitol, Snyder said Michigan has made tremendous progress as the “comeback state” during his first term in office, and he acknowledged areas of unfinished business to tackle as he begins his second term.
“We’re better, but better isn’t good enough,” he said.
For the fourth time in as many years, he made the case for an additional investment in Michigan’s crumbling roads and bridges. He took the opportunity to urge Michigan residents to support a May ballot proposal that would raise the state’s sales tax from 6 to 7 percent but exempt fuel purchases. If the constitutional amendment passes, it is expected to pump $1.3 billion more annually into roads, bridges and public transit.
The measure is going to the state’s voters after the legislature failed to pass a road-funding package in its lame-duck session. “In the end, what I need you to do is vote yes,” Snyder said. “Vote yes so we can have safer roads. Vote yes so we can get rid of those crumbling bridges and crumbling roads. Vote yes so we can have stronger schools and local governments.”
Michigan Farm Bureau (MFB), the state’s largest farm organization, has a longstanding policy that supports a sound transportation system. In a statement following the State of the State, newly-elected MFB President Carl Bednarski said the organization is “four-square behind the May ballot proposal that would give our transportation funding mechanism a desperately needed shot in the arm.
“Road improvements were one of the original issues this organization cut its teeth on. Now, almost 100 years later, we’re still fighting for quality infrastructure to move our products from farm to market, safely and efficiently,” he said.
Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (MDARD) Director Jamie Clover Adams said quality roads are key to supporting the state’s agricultural industry.
“More than 85 percent of our state’s agricultural commodities are moved by trucks,” she explained. “We really do need good roads and bridges to make that happen. We have a lot of growth opportunity in our sector, and we can’t do it without transportation.”
The governor also plans to include specific trades-related spending in his 2016 budget proposal. He vowed to increase efforts to improve transition from high school to higher education, with a focus on career counseling, technical training in skilled trades and dual-enrollment and online learning.
Bednarski said Snyder’s pledge to enhance education “is a promising step in growing our state’s supply of skilled trade workers, and has Farm Bureau’s explicit support.”
Snyder also called for a rewrite of the state’s energy law this year to make it “affordable, reliable, environmentally sound and also adaptable.” By the end of 2015, utilities must generate 10 percent of their electricity from renewable sources. He touched on plans to create a state energy agency and said more details will be announced in March.
“I think a coordinated focus on energy can only benefit the agriculture industry,” Clover Adams said. “He did talk about energy waste, but he’s also very well aware of energy delivery issues that we face in rural communities and rural businesses and on the farm, in actually getting the power to where it needs to be in a reasonable fashion.”
1/29/2015