State road funding constitutional amendment will go to voters in May

LANSING — The decision to make changes to the state gas and sales taxes to help fund road and bridge improvements will go to Michigan voters on May 5th.

Governor Rick Snyder has signed a measure passed by both the Michigan House and Senate about a week before Christmas.

The plan would remove the current sales tax on fuel and switch to a new wholesale tax for gasoline and diesel fuel. The state constitution requires the current gas tax to support schools and local governments. None of it is dedicated to roads.

The ballot proposal would set aside all state taxes paid at the pump for transportation.

In an effort to protect schools from losing money, the ballot measure would also ask for the state sales tax to be raised from 6% to 7% on retail purchases. That change would generate $300 million per year for schools and $94 million a year for local governments.