LANSING, Mich. — Gov. Rick Snyder signed a seven-bill package last week to provide more funding for Michigan roads and bridge repair.

"This package provides the single largest investment in transportation funding over the last half century," Snyder said at the signing ceremony Nov. 10. "It will go a long way to improve Michigan’s roads and ensure a safe and efficient system of transportation essential to a stronger future.

"Residents and visitors alike deserve much better than what we drive on today. This targeted, ongoing investment will help preserve and fix our infrastructure now and in the future, which is fundamental to continuing and accelerating our economic comeback."

According to a press release from the governor’s office, the plan raises 20 percent more revenue than the last roads plan in 1997 and adds a component of adjusting for inflation to ensure sustainability and "maintain buying power." Sixty-one percent of the tax and fee dollars will go to local road agencies in communities across the state, while 39 percent will go to state highways.

Local agencies will be permitted to use up to 10 percent of the funding for mass transit, with the exception of Detroit, which will be allowed to use up to 20 percent.

The new revenue will "assist road agencies in communities of all sizes across Michigan," said Joanna Johnson, managing director of the Kalamazoo County Road Commission. "The additional funding is vital as we continue asset management and system preservation efforts at the local level."

The Michigan Farm Bureau’s (MFB) lobbyist on transportation issues, Andrew Vermeesch, said the MFB agrees with the road-funding package. It’s difficult to discuss raising taxes and fees, he said; nonetheless, the legislation is "consistent with" MFB’s stated policies and goals.

County Road Assoc. of Michigan Executive Director Denise Donahue echoed those comments. She said everyone is "very pleased" something’s being done, but cautioned that nothing special will be done in the way of repairs until 2017 and it will take a decade to get caught up with the needed repairs and maintenance.

Not everyone agrees with the $1.2 billion figure being advertised as the value of the roads and bridge funding deal, which is being touted as a five-year phased-in plan. Key components of the plan include a 7.3 cents a gallon increase in gasoline taxes and a 20 percent vehicle registration fee hike.

The plan will start with a $452 million increase in these fees and taxes in 2017, which will go into full effect in 2018. More money is supposed to be dedicated to road and bridge repair and maintenance in 2019-21.

Snyder told The Detroit News Nov. 5 that the money currently doled out for road and bridge maintenance, $400 million per year, will go away when the $452 million from the new taxes and fees begins to be collected in 2017. Because of that, the impact of the legislation is "significantly less" than what’s being touted, a lobbyist for the Michigan Municipal League told the paper.

Others criticize the plan as being vague about where the rest of the money that’s supposed to be directed towards roads and bridges under the plan will come from, in the out years; they fear money will be taken from the general fund that now goes to other important areas and programs.

Earlier this year voters rejected a ballot measure that would have imposed a much larger gasoline tax to pay for more road and bridge work.