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Municipal League proposes targeted delivery‑fee fund for neighborhood street repairs, urges coordination with water infrastructure
Summary
The Michigan Municipal League told the House committee local governments already invest in roads but cannot close the gap alone. The League proposed a targeted neighborhood‑streets fund financed by a 50¢ retail delivery fee, and urged coordinated planning to avoid repeated pavement cuts for underground work.
A representative of the Michigan Municipal League presented a municipal perspective to the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, urging state action to help cities and villages fund and coordinate repairs to neighborhood streets and underground infrastructure.
“Right now we think that the time to increase transportation funding is now,” the speaker said, framing the municipal request as complementary to county and industry testimony about a statewide funding shortfall.
The League emphasized differences between municipal and county responsibilities. It said cities and villages manage a large share of local streets by lane miles and also provide other services — police, elections, parks — that compete for limited local resources. The League noted that identified local revenue sources (millages, general fund contributions and bonds) are uneven across municipalities; a mill that raises substantial dollars in one community may raise far less in a small village.
To address neighborhood streets specifically, the League outlined a “neighborhood roads fund” concept financed by a 50‑cent retail delivery fee modeled on programs in Colorado and Minnesota. The League estimated a 50¢ fee would generate roughly $275 million statewide and proposed a target distribution of about $250 million to avoid “peanut‑butter” thin spreads across more than 600 local road agencies. The League said the proposal would include exemptions for very small businesses (for example, firms with under $500,000 in annual sales, following Colorado’s model) and would exclude pure grocery purchases when groceries are otherwise exempt from sales tax.
The League also stressed coordination across surface and subsurface work. It urged lawmakers to consider policies that minimize cutting new pavement for later water, sewer or stormwater work and to prioritize using existing water‑system capacity before building new infrastructure. The speaker emphasized that resurfacing a street only to have it cut two years later for underground work wastes public dollars and shortens pavement life.
On local funding capacity, the League said that identified city and village revenue dedicated to roads was significant but incomplete; it cited about $128 million from identified city road millages and $12 million from village millages in a Treasury sample, and said those figures undercount total local investment when general funds and other sources are included.
Ending: The League urged lawmakers to consider targeted funds for neighborhood streets, preservation‑first approaches for underground utilities, and formulas that direct resources to non‑federal aid eligible local roads. The League said it stands ready to work with the Legislature on a formula and distribution details.
