Road Commissions Anticipate Lawmaker Vote

A bill that would allow county governments to absorb local road commissions is coming under heavy criticism. The dissolving of the road commissions is part of Governor Rick Snyder’s new infrastructure plan.

Under this plan, rural areas would have funds transferred from their control over to more largely populated areas. County Road Engineer Kevin Harju said this move would drastically cut money available to Houghton County. Some of the changes would base available revenue on commercial traffic. Harju says for outlying areas like Keweenaw County…these changes would be crippling.

A similar discussion was held at the Baraga County Board of Commissioners meeting earlier this week. The bill is expected to come out of a House committee with a vote sometime today.