A motorist prepares to pump gasoline in Detroit. A coalition of business interests calls for higher taxes to fix Michigan’s bad roads, as Gov. Rick Snyder’s road funding plan gets little traction in the Legislature. Snyder has proposed an increase in the gasoline tax and higher vehicle registration fees to pay for $1.2 billion per year in road maintenance and repairs over the next decade.LANSING, Mich. – Michigan’s venture capitalist-turned-governor, Rick Snyder, needed just five months in office to slash his state’s business taxes. Elected on the downside of the recession, he was among a crop of new Republican leaders eager to show they could boost their states’ ailing economies with lower taxes.
But two years later, confronting one of the automobile-addicted state’s most visible problems – crumbling roads – Snyder has roiled conservatives by calling for a major tax increase.
He has proposed boosting the gasoline tax from 19 cents to 33 cents a gallon and hiking car license plate fees by 60 percent, firmly grabbing what many politicians consider a third rail for consumers – gasoline prices.
“This is common sense,” he declared during his budget proposal, adding, “we need to make this investment.”
Although a break from the GOP’s anti-tax ideology, Snyder’s move shows a dicey willingness among some Republican officials to begin raising more revenue. They are a distinct minority in the more than two dozen states the party dominates. But those treading this path are governors facing difficulty delivering basic services, especially roads, with budgets that are strained and must be balanced.