State Senate could vote on gas tax Thursday

BEVERLY HILLS, Mich. – The roads are so pitted and patched in some spots across Metro Detroit that you could easily lose your dental work just trying to drive over them.

How to fund Michigan's crumbling infrastructure has been a two-year process with multiple plans and no results. Everybody agrees the roads are a mess, but nobody wants to pay for it.

The Michigan State Senate is once again grappling with a bill that would tax the wholesale price of gas. If it sounds familiar, it is. The same bill went down to defeat this summer.

Senate Republicans are contemplating bringing the bill back for a vote this Thursday.

Sources in Lansing told Local 4 that it faces a very uncertain future.

A count Tuesday night showed not enough GOP votes to pass and Senate Democrats are leery of signing on. If it was to make it through the Senate it faces and unclear future in the house.

All of this is a backdrop to the roads report the Road Commission of Oakland County released Monday, which says the roads are in bad shape and will continue to get worse.

"Michigan remains among the bottom states in the nation for per capita road funding and that's evident  in our road system," said Road Commission spokesman Craig Bryson.

The commission makes no recommendation on what the Legislature should do for funding. Polling on the gas tax has always come back unfavorably. Watch for this to be the top issue during this lame duck session.


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