Michigan Notes

[bulldog1979]

It's been fairly quiet, but H.B. 5072 is being prepared to go to the governor's desk. This bill will rename the Michigan Heritage Routes to Pure Michigan Byways. Once signed, the law will go into immediate effect. MDOT will then have a year from enactment to obtain a trademark license from the Michigan Economic Development Corporation, the owners of the "Pure Michigan" trademark, and design the new signage. No word on how fast the signs may be changed, but word is that MDOT has no more of the older Heritage Route signs in inventory. The bill doesn't specify a timeframe to change existing signage, and the House Fiscal Agency report called the bill revenue neutral because signage would only have to be swapped as needed.

[JREwing78]

Because when I think of a byway, I think of I-69 in Branch and Calhoun counties... (currently a Recreational Heritage route)

[DanTheMan414]

The legislature punted on the issue.

More fully: The voters will decide in May whether to increase the state sales tax from 6% to 7%, with the extra sales tax money going toward road funding.

[bulldog1979]

The legislature punted on the issue.

More fully: The voters will decide in May whether to increase the state sales tax from 6% to 7%, with the extra sales tax money going toward road funding.

You can't call it a punt. Any changes to the sales tax require voter approval, period. The sales tax rate is written into the Michigan Constitution of 1963, Article IX, §8, so any changes to it are a constitutional amendment which requires voter approval, a fact left out of nearly every news report on the road funding plans.

Michigan has a crazy system of taxing fuel. Assume the price of gas listed on the sign is $2.499:

• The portion charged by the station is $1.994/gal.
• The federal excise tax of $0.184/gal is added. Price is now $2.178/gal.
• The state sales tax of 6% is added. Price is now $2.309/gal.
• The state excise tax of $0.190/gal for gasoline is added. Price is now the $2.499/gal listed on the pump.

The net result is that Michigan drivers are taxed $0.505/gal on gasoline in this scenario, but the $0.131/gal in sales taxes does not go to roads. Of that sales tax, 1/3 goes into the state educational fund and 2/3 goes into the general fund for regular state appropriations. That sales tax is how Michigan can have such a high overall taxation on fuel and a low overall expenditure on transportation. And yes, we literally tax a tax in Michigan.

The one plan from the State House was to eliminate the 6% sales tax on fuel sales and increase the state excise tax rate such that the overall price of fuel would essentially stay the same. The rub is that schools and the general fund would be hit, and the plan would still have had to go to the voters for approval.

The other plan from the State Senate was to increase the state excise tax rate. Sure, it would have increased the tax revenues for transportation, but it would not have eliminated this disparity between higher overall taxation on fuel and low transportation overall revenues because of the sale tax.

The current plan going before the voters is essentially a combination of the two approaches and will raise the sales tax to 7%. It also eliminates the sales tax on fuels as of October 1, 2015. So the increased tax rate is to offset the loss of sales taxes on fuel sales. In addition, a package of bills are "tie-barred" onto the constitutional amendment and only go into effect if the ballot proposal passes.

• One provision converts the fuel excise tax into a wholesale tax that will cause it to rise. The rate will be 14.9% on all fuels, not a flat $0.19/gal for gasoline and $0/15/gal for diesels , although there are some minimums and maximums on that to even out fluctuations.
• The initial extra revenues for transportation will pay down some bonds at first before being dedicated into new projects.
  
• Vehicle values for registration fees will be frozen at the initial purchase value. Currently they drop 10%/year for 3 years before they are frozen.
• Electric and hybrid vehicles would see their registration fees increase. Registration fees, less the administrative value retained by the Secretary of State, would still be remitted to the transportation fund, so these extra revenues would be passed to road funding.

This will mean that come October next year, all of our taxes paid on gasoline in Michigan will be wholesale taxes that go to transportation uses only, unlike the current system where some of our gas tax doesn't go to transportation at all.

[getemngo]

Michigan is getting its first death diamond next year.

(Thanks to rawmustard for bringing this up on Facebook.)

[02 Park Ave]

The I-94 is closed near Battle Creek due to a 150 vehicle accident!😒

[Brandon]

The I-94 is closed near Battle Creek due to a 150 vehicle accident!😒

Saw it on here: http://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/michigan/2015/01/09/michigan-freeway-crash/21498891/

Due to snow, and they were only going 45 mph.

[triplemultiplex]

That was quite the impromptu fireworks show. :?

Not to make light of a horrible pile-up, but having one of the trucks stuffed with fireworks is the kind of thing you imagine when you're 8 years old and smashing your matchbox cars together because you want to recreate movie explosion scenarios.

[renegade]

The I-94 is closed near Battle Creek due to a 150 vehicle accident!😒

Another one around the same time about 10 miles south of Ann Arbor ...

http://topics.mlive.com/tag/U.S.-23-pileup/posts.html#incart_std

... and they want to raise the speed limit to 80 ...   

May God help us all.

[tdindy88]

Well, even if you did raise the speed limit to 80, you shouldn't be doing that on snow and ice, that's pretty universal anywhere.

[Brandon]

Well, even if you did raise the speed limit to 80, you shouldn't be doing that on snow and ice, that's pretty universal anywhere.

According to the News article, they might have been going 45 or less when the accidents occurred.

[JREwing78]

Two things these stretches of freeway have in common:
- They're both 4-lane freeway facilities
- They carry heavy traffic loads (particularly commercial truck traffic)

MDOT reports that in 2013, the stretch of I-94 that was closed received 50,800 vehicles per day on average, 9,100 of which were commercial trucks. For the affected stretch of US-23, 44,300 vehicles (including 6,900 commercial trucks) traversed that stretch per day.

Make no mistake, these are very busy highways.

Under normal conditions, 4 lanes provides an acceptable level of service. In those kinds of conditions, though, it's way too much traffic, way too close together, paying insufficient attention, and going way too fast. If someone makes a wrong move, there's nowhere for traffic behind him to go.

6-laning both stretches would've given opportunity for traffic to stretch out more, and thus more room to avoid accidents. It's one area where Michigan's under-investment in its highways is coming back to bite it in the ass.

[JREwing78]

On a separate note, I will frequently opt for 2-lane alternatives when weather conditions are poor, not because the roads themselves are safer, but due to the lower traffic volume reducing opportunities for fellow motorists to take me out.

[JREwing78]

"If the highway was six lanes instead of four, it just means we would have had six lanes blocked," said Nick Schirripa, MDOT spokesman.

"This boiled down to driver behavior," he said. "People were driving too fast and following too closely on an icy freeway during a white-out."

Schirripa was responding to widespread chatter on the Internet that the pile-up proves I-94 needs to be widened or otherwise improved in eastern Kalamazoo County.

"People are jumping up and down and saying, 'You need to change the road,' " Schirripa said. "That's ridiculous. This isn't about the road."

MDOT: Michigan I-94 pile-up result of 'driver behavior,' not road design
http://www.mlive.com/news/kalamazoo/index.ssf/2015/01/mdot_michigan_i-94_pile-up_res.html#incart_most-read_news_article


I agree with Mr. Schirripa that driver behavior deserves blame - quite frankly, it deserves most of it.

But he's full of it to think that 6-laning wouldn't make this stretch of highway safer.

[getemngo]

Drivers can pay Mackinac Bridge toll with credit cards starting in May

Welcome to the 21st Century, Mr. Mighty Mac.

Starting in mid-May, drivers traversing the 58-year-old Mackinac Bridge can begin swiping a credit card to pay the toll for crossing the five-mile span.

Credit cards are accepted at the bridge now, but only in the administration building. Tolls are $2 per axle or $4 per car.

The toll booth upgrade comes amid a coordinated software update to systems at the Mackinac Bridge, the International Bridge in Sault Ste. Marie, and the Blue Water Bridge in Port Huron, according to the Michigan Department of Transportation.



Someone in the comments section suggested MDOT start using EZPass. I'm not sure how much that would cost to implement or how many people would actually use it, considering it's the only freeway tollbooth in the state not at an international border crossing.

[Brandon]

Drivers can pay Mackinac Bridge toll with credit cards starting in May

Welcome to the 21st Century, Mr. Mighty Mac.

Starting in mid-May, drivers traversing the 58-year-old Mackinac Bridge can begin swiping a credit card to pay the toll for crossing the five-mile span.

Credit cards are accepted at the bridge now, but only in the administration building. Tolls are $2 per axle or $4 per car.

The toll booth upgrade comes amid a coordinated software update to systems at the Mackinac Bridge, the International Bridge in Sault Ste. Marie, and the Blue Water Bridge in Port Huron, according to the Michigan Department of Transportation.



Someone in the comments section suggested MDOT start using EZPass. I'm not sure how much that would cost to implement or how many people would actually use it, considering it's the only freeway tollbooth in the state not at an international border crossing.

EZPass would be fairly easy for them to implement as they have a large number of tourists from I-Pass territory.  If they would team up with ISTHA or the OTIC, they could implement a system easily.  All they'd need to do is add the equipment to each lane.  The Bridge does not need OTR lanes.  It's not that busy.

[JREwing78]

EZPass would be fairly easy for them to implement as they have a large number of tourists from I-Pass territory.  If they would team up with ISTHA or the OTIC, they could implement a system easily.  All they'd need to do is add the equipment to each lane.  The Bridge does not need OTR lanes.  It's not that busy.

Moreover, we don't necessarily WANT open-road tolling here. It's a congested location with the state park and Welcome Center right at the bridge. I can see the benefit of EZPass here - for the convenience factor and speeding up of fare processing, not for any cost-savings.

[JREwing78]

The Detroit Free Press has a section of articles discussing the pending Proposal 1 vote:

http://www.freep.com/topic/f55af817-0d0b-4687-8e57-9818ab5e4ff5/proposal-1-voters-guide/

[JREwing78]

The Lansing State Journal has two articles discussing the results of a recent MDOT audit. It does not bode well for the upcoming gas tax proposal.

Michigan's highway department repeatedly hires contractors whose work requires fixes, hasn't tracked contractors who've failed to fix their work, and relies on a faulty federal program to weed out bad actors.

The Michigan Department of Transportation says 13% of warrantied roads jobs have required corrective action. But documented weaknesses in MDOT's oversight beg the questions: How many needed fixes have been missed? And what might be wrong on the 55% to 65% of MDOT jobs that aren't warrantied?

Many lawmakers are fuming over those questions as voters are asked May 5 to take on $1.2 billion a year in new roads taxes and expand the troubled warranty program to local roads.

After 18 years, MDOT 'still learning' troubled oversight program
http://www.lansingstatejournal.com/story/news/local/watchdog/2015/04/19/years-mdot-still-learning-troubled-oversight-program/25947137/


State audits show a pattern of quality-control problems in highway construction projects worth billions of dollars dating to 1997 – the year the Legislature mandated Michigan's road-warranty program.

Many shortcomings are concentrated in the warranty program the Michigan Department of Transportation applies to contractors who pave the state's most-traveled roads and who paint thousands of bridges to protect against corrosion.

Auditors documented failures to follow law and internal policies, exposed accountability issues and noted MDOT's difficulty in resolving issues it promised to fix.

Audits detail MDOT's warranty woes
http://www.lansingstatejournal.com/story/news/local/2015/04/19/mdot-road-warranty-audits/25953733/

[JREwing78]

Poll: 61% say they'll vote no on Mich. road Proposal 1
Reasons for voting no cited by respondents include: too much in the proposal (31%); taxes are already too high (22%); wasteful government spending (13%); and distrust of Michigan government (11%).
http://www.freep.com/story/news/politics/2015/04/30/poll-oppose-michigan-proposal-one-road-funding-sales-tax/26658413/

I can't say I'm surprised. This would've worked much better had lawmakers simply raised the gas taxes, then presented the proposal that would've killed sales taxes on fuel but bumped the rate to 7%.

[JREwing78]

Oh, and on a side note, the damage to the guardrails from the I-94 pileup last January is still not fixed, at least as of Monday. Ditto for long stretches of cable barrier on I-94 west of Kalamazoo.

[The Ghostbuster]

Just how bad are the roads in Michigan? And what can be done to fix them?

[JREwing78]

Just how bad are the roads in Michigan? And what can be done to fix them?

It's bad enough that they're reverting some paved roads back to gravel, because they can't afford to fix them.
http://www.mlive.com/news/kalamazoo/index.ssf/2010/02/return_to_stone_age_reverting.html

The consensus is that Michigan needs to invest more money into roads. Where there's disagreement is how to pay for it.

[JREwing78]

Annnnd... Proposal 1 goes down in flames, to the shock and amazement of nobody:

http://www.freep.com/story/news/politics/2015/05/05/angry-voters-reject-proposal-michigan-roads-await-viable-fix/26950451/

[JREwing78]

Proposal 1 fails; state lawmakers back to drawing board
http://www.freep.com/story/news/politics/2015/05/05/proposal-one-michigan-road-fail-alternatives-plans/26947533/