Plan B, or is it C?

While the state legislature continues to decide whether or not they will address the lack of funding for needed transportation projects, local agencies continue to step up and address some of their transportation needs themselves. Here are two of the latest examples.

The Washtenaw County Board of Commissioners has decided to use PA 283 to provide some transportation funding for badly needed transportation improvements. The board has approved a 0.5 mill that will raise about $7 million countywide. The money is to be split between the county and the cities and villages, with the cities getting $3 million and the county getting about $4 million. The legislation allows the county board to raise these dollars without a vote of the people for specific projects; the funds must be spent in a year. The board action is only for one year. It is possible that if the projects are completed, the board could consider repeating the process next year or, better yet, the state legislature could pass a significant funding bill and there would not be the need to renew the county-wide millage at all.

The City of Farmington Hills is asking its citizens to support a 2.0 mill increase for 10 years for badly needed road improvements. The city indicates that the average PASER pavement rating is 4.3 (poor/fair), much below the average rating of many other communities in the area. The millage would raise an additional $6.1 million annually for 10 years. The goal of the millage is to improve the overall PASER rating of Farmington Hills roads from the current 4.3 to 6 (fair) by the end of the program. This would greatly improve the pavement quality of roads in the community. Two of the projects they have identified include improving the pavement on 13 Mile Road from Orchard Lake to Farmington, and on 11 Mile Road from Orchard Lake to Middle Belt.

Now, before anyone even begins to think that these two cases will dilute the case for an overall increase at the state level, let me remind you that we need at least an additional $1.5 billion to improve roads statewide. These two examples would provide only an additional $13 million per year – a lot of money, but nowhere close to what is needed.

I commend the City of Farmington Hills and the Washtenaw County Board of Commissioners and other local elected officials and agencies for having the strength and the intelligence to do something our state legislature has not found a way to do since 1997 – make a tough and potentially difficult decision because it is the right thing to do.