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As Michigan legislators race the clock on a transportation deal, other states plan initiatives

We tapped a nerve in November with the Capital Ideas conference in Denver. More than 30 states sent representatives – some of whom went right back to their states and got to work helping their communities make progress.

Folks in Michigan are working with Gov. Rick Snyder to adopt a long-term, stable funding source for infrastructure. As their session winds to a close this week, legislative leaders are working in a House-Senate conference committee to hammer out a compromise that could bring as much as $1 billion a year in additional funding to repair and improve transportation infrastructure.

Gov. Snyder, who has been pushing for money to fix roads and bridges since coming into office, has seen the lame duck session as an opportunity for the GOP-controlled legislature to adopt a plan to raise additional transportation revenue, according to The Detroit News.

“The money I’m talking about is to get us to fair-to-good roads,” Snyder said, after taking a tour of Detroit’s highways. “They’re not even going to be great roads, folks. … We were the state to put America on wheels. Now we’re also widely known as a state with some of the worst roads in the country, and that’s just unacceptable.”

Over the summer, House Republicans responded by passing a much more modest plan to help fund the road upkeep. The $450 million a year would have come mostly from the general fund rather than a gas tax increase, while converting the 19 cents-per-gallon tax to a 6 percent tax at the wholesale level.

But the governor and Senate leaders preferred a more robust package that did not require taking money from other areas of the state budget. It took until after the election, in November, for the Republican controlled Senate to respond by passing an even larger funding package. The plan would increase the gas tax to the equivalent of 44 cents over four years, based on the wholesale prices.

While Michigan legislators work on their compromise, we already are hearing of transportation initiatives moving in other states. This month James Corless, director of T4America, was invited to testify before the Senate Transportation Committee in Oregon. We also met with legislators, state and local officials, and business leaders in Louisiana to discuss transportation policy and funding options. Many others in our state network are developing plans for the upcoming 2015 legislative sessions.

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As funding battles loom in legislatures, Transportation for America launches network to support state efforts to fulfill visions for economic success

For immediate release

DENVER, CO — With representatives from 30 states convening in Denver for a strategy conference, Transportation for America today announced the launch of a new network to support state efforts to pass legislation to raise transportation funding while improving accountability for spending it.

As Congress continues to postpone tough decisions on federal transportation funding, several states have responded by raising new revenues of their own for transportation. Other states are hoping to do the same in 2015. That is why T4America brought together more than 100 experts and participants for the Denver Capital Ideas conference, where they are sharing experiences and insights that can help other states take on the thorny issue of transportation funding in their state legislatures.

“Federal gas tax revenues are dropping and prospects of returning to robust national investment are uncertain, at best,” said T4America director, James Corless. “States that want to continue investing will have to explore new ways to raise funding for transportation on their own.”

Twenty states considered legislation to increase transportation funding in some form in 2013. Since 2012, 12 states have successfully raised new revenues. A handful of other state legislative leaders and governors have already indicated that transportation funding will be on the front burner in 2015.

“They say that states are the laboratories of democracy,” said John Robert Smith, the chair of T4America and former mayor of Meridian, MS. “And many are proving right now how to stand in the gap created by federal inaction. But to fulfill their homegrown solutions, they need help with everything from finding innovative revenue sources to crafting political strategies and legislative language. Our hope is that this new network will help replicate success across the country and empower states and regions that want to make this happen.”

At the same time, T4America is working with local leaders across the country to prepare for the possibility of action in the new Congress convening in January.

“There is still an enormous opportunity,” said Corless, “because Congress still must update the federal transportation program, MAP-21, by next May. This gives us an important chance to resuscitate and reinvigorate the program in exciting ways, so that it better suits the needs of people in the communities where they live.”

CAPITAL IDEAS (https://t4america.org/capital-ideas) is a two-day conference in Denver, convened by Transportation for America to support this kind of work at the state level. View the full agenda and list of speakers here: https://t4america.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/T4A-Capital-Ideas-Agenda.pdf


Contact: David Goldberg
Communications Director
202-412-7930
david.goldberg@t4america.org

Backup contact: Stephen Davis
Deputy Director of Communications
202-955-5543 x242
steve.davis@t4america.org