Dear Friend,

On Monday, I was in Macomb County to celebrate the biggest deal in Michigan history to fix the damn roads. My seventh balanced budget, which I signed last week, includes a sustainable, long-term investment of nearly $2 billion a year to fix our state and local roads.

What does that mean for you? A safer, smoother drive to school or work and fewer popped tires or broken axels. And yes, while it does mean more orange barrels on the road, this investment will protect and create thousands of good-paying jobs to help move our state forward.

Since I took office, I’ve focused on ending decades of underinvestment in our roads, fixing them with the right mix and materials so they last for decades to come. This year’s budget builds on my Rebuilding Michigan Plan, a $3.5 billion investment to fix some of Michigan’s busiest highways, from I-696 to US-31. But these aren’t the only roads that need help.

With this new budget, we’re fixing state AND local roads. This budget will make every part of your drive better, from the moment you back out of your driveway to the time you arrive at your final destination. We’re getting this done by ensuring every penny you pay at the pump goes towards fixing our roads. And we’re also going to connect our cities and whole regions together with world-class rail and transit services. 

We got this done the right way, without gutting important funding for first responders, housing, education, or jobs. We got it done to support good-paying local jobs and save families money as they feel the strain of a difficult job market and rising prices because of a chaotic national tariff policy. Best of all, we got it done by working together, with Democrats and Republicans. In a time of so much political division and dysfunction in DC, we’re leading the way in Michigan. We’re showing everybody that we can solve big problems and improve people’s lives. 

Let’s fix the damn roads!

Sincerely,

Gretchen Whitmer

Governor

Michigan Will Keep Fixing the Damn Roads  

By securing a sustainable, long-term investment of nearly $2 billion a year into Michigan’s state and local roads, the FY26 budget will improve people's daily drives for decades, keep Michiganders safe on the road, save families time and money, ensure every penny paid at the pump goes towards fixing or rebuilding the roads, and protect thousands of good-paying construction jobs statewide. 

Michigan drivers face some of the highest road-related costs in the country. Broken roads lead to things like longer commutes, damage to our vehicles, and delays in shipments. This is stress that Michiganders don’t need weighing on them. When roads are broken, our economy suffers too. Shipments and supplies get delayed. Workers face longer commutes. Our transportation network—roads, rail, airports—are the arteries of our economy. When our roads work well, so do we.

Both Republicans and Democrats tried and failed for years to make a sustainable, long-term investment in our roads. In 2018, I ran to actually get it done. Over the last 5 years, my administration fixed more roads than any before me, a total of 24,500 lane miles and 1,900 bridges through this year’s construction season. That’s enough pavement to drive from Detroit to the Mackinac Bridge and back more than 30 times. 

With this balanced state budget and new funding strategy, we will keep thousands of workers on the job to keep fixing the damn roads—state and local—that you drive on every single day.