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Debate Over Road Funding Continues In Michigan State House

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Democrats in the state House won’t support big budget cuts for roads if it’s not clear where they’d come from.

State House Democrats say they won’t support big budget cuts for roads unless lawmakers identify where those cuts would be made.  Republican leaders in the House have floated a plan that would require hundreds of millions of dollars in cuts. But the plan doesn’t spell out which programs would lose funding.

House Democratic Leader Tim Greimel (D-Auburn Hills) says his caucus won’t support the plan unless they know where cuts would be made.  

“It’s just unsustainable and fiscally irresponsible to talk about diverting that kind of money without identifying where the cuts are going to occur,” said Greimel.  “Let’s be adults and let’s make the determinations of where those cuts are going come from now.”

Gov. Rick Snyder is also skeptical of the House Republican plan. “$600 million would be at the very outside boundaries of what could be possible,” Snyder told reporters on Wednesday. “Very challenging to do that without having significant cuts.”

The governor has called for raising the state’s gas tax and registration fees to generate more than $1 billion a year for roads.

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