Committee debates large township road-funding proposal, asks for data and amendments

The Senate Transportation Committee spent an extended portion of its meeting discussing Senate Bill 2142, a proposal to reallocate highway-related revenue and create a township road-and-bridge sustainability fund. Committee members requested data, raised equity concerns about levy thresholds and balances, and asked staff and agencies to draft and share specific amendments prior to the next meeting.

Senator Dean Rummel reported that he had requested and reviewed tax-department data showing there are 1,419 organized townships in the state and that, "I counted 592 of the 1419 are under 18 mills." He told the committee the combined township collections for the last available taxable year were read as "$34,000,00918" in the data he reviewed. Rummel used those figures to argue the committee should consider whether townships that do not levy to the 18-mill threshold should participate at the same level as…