Congresswoman Offers Locker-Room Assessment of Roads

Congresswoman Debbie Dingell, a Dearborn Democrat, spoke candidly to business leaders about state and federal lawmakers’ failure to find permanent funding solutions to America’s crumbling roads. (File photo via Atlantic Council / Flickr)

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U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Dearborn, on Friday spoke with locker-room bluntness about what she called state legislators’ failure to make meaningful headway in fixing Michigan’s crumbling “third world country” roads.

“You all need to tell your state legislators to get some balls,” Dingell told a gathering of some of Michigan’s top business leaders during the final day of the Mackinac Policy Conference.

“I’m sorry. They didn’t know what they were doing... When’s the last time you saw a referendum go down by 80 percent?” Dingell said, referring the complicated May 5 road repair ballot measure that Michigan voters sent down in flames. “They didn’t know what they were voting on.”

Transportation issues dominated discussion at the annual gathering sponsored by the Detroit Regional Chamber of Commerce on Mackinac Island, according to reports by The Detroit News and MLive.com.

Dingell said Congress lacks fortitude on the issue as well, approving only temporary funding measures that mean fewer road and bridge repair dollars for Michigan from the Highway Trust Fund.

“ … If we do not want to be a third world country, we’ve got to fix our roads and infrastructure,” she said. “We’ve got to figure out how we’re going to do it. We’ve got to work with the American voter, and we’ve got to do it.”

Lawmakers could vote on state road funding packages as early as next week.

Michigan House Speaker Kevin Cotter, R-Mt. Pleasant, said earlier at the conference that everyone agrees a road package is needed, “the argument comes down to how we go about getting the money.”

“We’re at a point now where arguing is not productive,” Cotter said.

Voting on funding packages could start next week, he said.

House Republicans are pushing a $105 billion plan that is largely dependent on existing state revenue wouldn’t require a tax increase. But critics say it eliminates the Earned Income Tax Credit for the working poor and potentially eliminates more than 214,000 state tourism jobs.

Also on Patch:

• Lawmaker Backs ‘Pot for Potholes’ Road Fix

Speaking earlier in the week, Republican Gov. Rick Snyder said redirecting $185 million from the Michigan Economic Development Corp. to a state road repair fund sends a muddled signal to business leaders that is a “disincentive for investment.”

“Every time something like that happens, we do lose jobs, investment and opportunity in the state of Michigan,” Snyder said, according to a report by The Detroit News. “Because it does send a message that we’re not being consistent. ... Every time you look like you’re bouncing around or not have a clear direction that you stay true to, you’re creating a disincentive for investment.”

Snyder favors gas tax and registration fee increases, but said he doubts it “is going to get adopted as written.”

Tell Us:

• How should Michigan go about funding road repairs?