Dear Friend,

Across Michigan, construction crews have been hard at work to fix the damn roads. Since I took office through the end of this year’s construction season, we will have fixed, repaired, or replaced nearly 24,500 lane miles of road and 1,900 bridges, supporting thousands of good-paying, local jobs.

So far, we’ve made a lot of progress in rebuilding some of Michigan’s most vital highways, like I-96 in Oakland County, I-696 across Metro Detroit, and US-127 near Lansing. But the five-year, $3.5 billion Rebuilding Michigan plan I launched in 2020 to fix our busiest, most economically critical roads and bridges will be ending soon.

Without a new roads plan, we cannot finish the job of fixing the damn roads. We must build on our momentum and pass a long-term, bipartisan road funding plan—so we can keep fixing our state highways and ramp up our efforts to rebuild the local roads that Michiganders rely on to get to work, run errands, and take their kids to school.

Right now, not all of the gas tax you pay at the pump goes toward fixing our roads. It should. I’ll keep working with Republicans and Democrats in the legislature on a bipartisan road plan to fix our roads without slashing vital funding for public schools, public safety, or public health, and without forcing commuters to pay more. I look forward to working with Speaker Hall, Majority Leader Brinks, and others in the state legislature to get this done.

If your local roads need fixing or you want to help us finish the job of fixing Michigan’s roads, I urge you to make your voice heard by taking the survey below and by contacting your representatives in Lansing—see below.

Take the survey below—tell us what fixing the damn roads means to you.

Click here to take survey.

Let’s work together and get it done.

Sincerely,

Why Are Michigan Roads in Such Bad Shape?

Before I took office, years of underinvestment left our roads in disrepair. In the late ‘90s, Governor Engler raised the gas tax, but it fell short of what the business community and both parties in the legislature agreed was needed to solve the problem. By 2007, road conditions briefly improved, but by 2012, they had deteriorated once again. Of the $2.85 billion raised between 1997 and 2012, only 17% went to major road and bridge repairs. In 2015, Governor Snyder passed a $1.2 billion funding package—what he called a “down payment” to begin addressing the gap.

In 2018, I ran to finish the job and fix the damn roads. People across Michigan want certainty that they can use our roads to get to work, drop their kids off at school, and run errands without popping a tire or cracking their windshield. And they want certainty that the repairs we are making will last for decades, instead of just being temporary fixes.

To do this right, we’ll all have to recognize some hard truths.

• We’re working to counteract years of underinvestment and patching potholes that have left our roads crumbling. Instead of just replacing the top layer, we must keep fully rebuilding our roads with the right mix and materials, so they are built to last.
• As I’ve told my Republican and Democratic colleagues in the state legislature, fixing the roads for the long run means finding new, fair sources of revenue and investing our existing resources efficiently without slashing vital funding for public schools, public safety, or public health.
• We must go beyond fixing busy highways and bridges to rebuild the critical local roads people rely on every day.

At the beginning of year, I introduced the MI Road Ahead Plan, which proposes $3 billion in investments to tackle road repairs, reduce car repair costs, and improve safety across the state. It starts by ensuring that every dollar paid by drivers at the pump goes toward fixing the roads. This plan includes more than $1 billion for local roads, ensuring neighborhoods get the support they need to fix their streets.

Make Your Voice Heard

I urge Republicans and Democrats to work together to come up with a roads plan that will finish fixing all the damn roads. I look forward to working with Speaker Hall, Majority Leader Brinks, and others in the state legislature to find a commonsense solution that will keep fixing our roads. Both parties will have to compromise to get this done right, and that’s the way it ought to be.

To get in touch with your representatives in Lansing, make your voice heard, and stay up to date on legislative activity, please check out the links below.