Whitmer urges new taxes to fix Michigan roads

It’s a new legislative term, and one of Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s first calls for action was to increase taxes.

“To my friends in the GOP: fixing the roads in a sustainable way means looking for new, fair sources of revenue,” Whitmer said in a Jan. 16 press release.

Whitmer’s primary campaign promise in 2018 was to fix Michigan roads. Seven years later, the governor is still talking about roads. But her latest comments did not say where the increased revenue will come from. Options could include raising the gas tax, enacting toll roads, or creating a mileage tax.

“We can’t just cut our way to better roads. Defunding public safety or public health is not the way to fix potholes,” Whitmer added in the press release.

Sen. Aric Nesbitt, R-Paw Paw, used a Jan. 16 social media post to criticize Whitmer’s handling of roads.

“She had 6 years, a 40% increase in state revenue, a legislative trifecta and a $9 billion dollar surplus,” Nesbitt wrote on X.

Nesbitt criticized Whitmer’s spending priorities, which have been dominated by corporate handouts, and he said the governor does not have a long-term plan to fix the roads.

“Governor Whitmer’s speech on Wednesday proved she heard nothing the people of Michigan said this past November,” said Nesbitt in an email to CapCon. Nesbitt recently announced that he will run for governor in 2026, when Whitmer will be term-limited out of office.

Michigan Capitol Confidential reported in April that the share of roads assessed as in good or fair condition will drop over the next year.

The Transportation Asset Management Council reports that 25% Michigan’s roads were in good condition in 2024, while 38% were in fair condition, and 37% were in poor condition.

But the share of roads in good condition will drop to 20% by 2034, the council said. The share in fair condition will drop to 32%, and the share in poor condition rise to 48%.

The council is expected to update those numbers in a new report to be published in the first half of the year.

In the months before Whitmer took office, projections for road conditions showed a slight improvement and then a slight decrease in the percentage of good/fair roads.

“The governor could have improved road quality by spending more of the state’s growing budget on road repair,” said James Hohman, fiscal policy director at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. “She spent gains on corporate welfare and pork instead.”

Shortly after taking office in 2019, Whiter proposed a 45-cent gas tax increase, an idea that a House Democratic leader declared dead by August 2019. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Michigan received a large cash infusion in federal aid and it had a $9 billion surplus during the 2023-2024 legislative term. Lawmakers spent most of it, though not to ramp up spending on roads. Under a one-term Democratic trifecta, the state promised $4.6 billion in corporate subsidies.

Though the govrnor is calling again for more taxes, newly elected House Speaker, Matt Hall, R-Richland Township, has other ideas. Hall proposed a plan on Jan. 16 to use $3.1 billion in annual revenue to fix local roads without raising taxes. The plan would pull $1 billion from subsidy programs, $600 million from the general fund, $500 million from legislative earmarks, $500 million from the corporate attraction fund. It also would rely on dedicating to the roads all taxes paid at the pump, expected to raise $945 million.

Whitmer did not respond to an email seeking comment.