Whitmer pans 'trash can' pension bond road funding plan
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on Monday panned a new road funding idea that a conservative business group is pitching to Republican lawmakers as a way to also shore up the states teacher pension system.
As The Detroit News reported on June 28, the West Michigan Policy Forum recently briefed GOP leaders on a $10 billion pension bond idea it says could free up nearly $1 billion annually to fix the state's crumbling roads without raising taxes.
But the idea may have been retrieved out of Gov. Rick Snyders trash can, Whitmer said Monday at an unrelated event in Detroit, referencing her fiscally conservative Republican predecessor. This was something that was floated, and he rejected it because it was not a good idea.
Whitmers proposal for a 45-cent-per-gallon fuel tax hike has gone nowhere in the Legislature, where Republicans have called it a non-starter and Democrats have not introduced an enabling bill that would be required.
Read more: https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/michigan/2019/07/08/whitmer-pans-trash-can-pension-bond-road-funding-plan/1674531001/