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Road Fund Disbursements

Road funds less than expected

HANCOCK -- Governor Gretchen Whitmer's office announced Monday long-term $2 billion annual fund disbursements have been awarded to counties and municipalities in an effort to deliver on the governor's 2018 campaign promise of "fixing the damn roads." Several townships and cities in Houghton and Keweenaw County, as well as the counties as a whole, received nearly $1 million in state funding.

Houghton County Road Commission County Highway Engineer and Manager Kevin Harju said the county expected more to be given from the state and this disbursement was only a partial collection of corporate and marijuana tax revenue. "Initially, those road funds for Houghton County were supposed to generate about $2.2 million, but it's only a partial year of revenue generating with the new formula," he said. "So you only have nine months of collection."

According to the Governor's office, the primary source of funding for the states $2.2 billion investment into the roads began in January with the state's motor fuel tax swap. $1 billion came from the gas tax, $420 million came from taxes on the marijuana industry and $600 million from the corporate income tax -- with additional revenues on its way from corporate taxes.

Harju said the funding was less than the county expected, due to the partial tax capture, but the road commission should take on more projects once the revenues come as expected from the state. "You know, $600,000 in construction today is about two miles of road," he said. "It's going to be beneficial and helpful and greatly appreciated to get the roads back in repair. Eventually, if they start generating the $2.2 million dollars that they anticipated, then we'd be able to do a lot more work."

For the municipalities within Houghton and Keweenaw Counties, the breakdown looks like this:

Houghton County total -- $636,360.24

City/village allocations:

Houghton -- $86,952.34

Hancock -- $55,561.01

Calumet -- $9,286.31

Copper City -- $3,064.85

Lake Linden -- $14,026.30

Laurium -- $21,660.41

South Range -- $8,734.68

Keweenaw County total -- $194,323.82

Village allocation:

Ahmeek -- $2,584.08

Hancock City Manager Mary Babcock said the funding was less than expected, but accounted for in the city's budget. The city will use the $55,561 to maintain its streets through hot mix asphalt spot repairs. "We've been doing a lot of work around our blacktop and we're going to use that funding to cover that," she said. "It's less than we we're expecting and kind of later than we were expecting."

According to Harju, the Houghton County Road Commission was not certain it would get any funding from the state. "As of a month ago, we were being told by the state that we weren't receiving anything this year," he said. "There's a lot of other things besides transportation that receive funds from all the corporate taxes, the marijuana tax ... until the others are fully funded, nothing can go into the Neighborhood Roads Fund."

Keweenaw County Road Commission Engineer and Manager Greg Kingstrom said the money sent to Keweenaw County will be used the following year during its construction season. It will not be using any funding this year, since construction season is wrapping up soon. "We are, for this first year, holding those funds until next year and just applying them," he said. "We'll see what future parents are and how they can be applied to other aspects of our operation."

Harju said Houghton County is also keeping its share for future project use. The road commission is aiming for a late-January, early-February meeting to discuss where its funding is going towards.

Whitmer's latest effort to "fix the damn roads," has experienced its first hiccup. In June, it was reported by media outlets the state's marijuana tax revenue was $70 million less than expected. The state expects future investments and tax revenues to match and increase the amount of funding promised to Michigan's roads.

Whitmer leaves office in January. It is unclear at this time whether her successor, will continue her promise of funding Michigan's transportation infrastructure.