LANSING, Mich. – Lawmakers return to session Tuesday and insiders handicap the odds of getting a comprehensive road fix bill passed at 50/50.
There are two competing plans. The Senate has passed a bill that would double the tax on wholesale gas. The House has passed a plan that does not raise taxes but does not raise as much money for road repair either.
Sources in the Senate told Local 4 the House plan is dead in their chamber. If anything will be passed it will either be what the Senate has proposed, or the Senate plan with a couple of tweaks.
"Yes, we want our roads fixed, but no, we don't want to pay for it," is how Dennis Darnoi explained what the polling on the issue has routinely shown.
Darnoi said he believes that as each of the six days that are left in session pass with no fix, the likelihood that a plan goes through grows smaller each day.
It has been a lame duck session that's seen minimal movement. The other major policy initiative, adding workplace protections for the LGBT community, is now dead. Going into lame duck adding those protections was strongly championed by the business community, but it still couldn't cross the finish line.
Other high profile bills which appear on life support or DOA -- a bill that would change how Michigan awards its electoral college votes. Sources in the Senate told Local 4 it will never see the light of day in that chamber and the so-called religious freedom bill. That passed in the House but faces an unsure future in the Senate.