The Traverse City Area Chamber of Commerce supports a sales tax increase to fix Michigan’s roads. That’s good news for the plan that has lost some key support in recent weeks. The higher tax would raise more than a billion dollars a year for transportation spending.
Critics say there was another option, one that did not involve new taxes. But Doug Luciani, President and CEO of the Traverse City chamber, says they looked at that plan too.
“It didn’t address the full load of the transportation needs,” he says. “It fell far short of what the transportation needs are.”
And Luciani says without new taxes, the cuts required in other parts of the state budget would have been too painful.
Luciani says chamber officials are not excited about higher taxes, but something needs to be done and this is the only plan in sight. He says they like the fact that many of the dollars raised would go directly to cities, villages and counties to fix their own roads.
Luciani says the chamber will not campaign for the proposal, as they have for school bonds in recent years.
“We are endorsing this,” he says, “and trying to provide some guidance for our members ... to assure them that we have looked at it and we do believe that this is the best option right now.”
Last week the road plan lost some key supporters. The Michigan Chamber of Commerce decided to remain neutral on the question, due to a lack of consensus among its members. Then Michigan’s Attorney General Bill Schuette announced his opposition.
Voters will decide the issue on May 5th.
