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Snyder Skeptical of House Speaker's Road Funding Ideas

(MPRN-Lansing) State House Republicans could introduce legislation to boost road funding as soon as this week. 

House Speaker Kevin Cotter (R-Mt. Pleasant) says he’s interested in tapping restricted pools of money in the budget and economic development funds to raise more than $1 billion a year for roads. He told reporters last week he won’t put forward a plan that relies mostly on raising taxes.

Snyder says he’s open to looking at restricted funds, but…

“The challenge is, why are they restricted? What’s the need in those particular areas?” he told reporters Monday. “That’s the challenge of this, is, how do we do it in a way where we don’t create harm in some other fashion while we’re solving the road issue?”

When it comes to economic development dollars, Snyder says wasteful spending in that area has largely been dealt with. He points to tax credits that have already been discontinued under his administration.

“They’ve essentially been capped or stopped in some fashion a number of years ago,” he said. “So, that isn’t going to help us with respect to looking forward particularly that much because we want to keep the economic engine going.”

Snyder says any plan to raise more than a billion dollars a year for roads will need to include raising taxes.

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