Michigan facing $2.4 billion shortage needed to fund county roads, report says
(CBS DETROIT) - Greenfield Road in Oakland County is a stretch of road included in the thousands of miles of local county roads throughout Michigan that are due to be fixed, according to a Michigan County Road Association report that laid out $2.4 billion of additional revenue needed to fix bridges and county roads.
Detroiters CBS News Detroit spoke with said they'll do whatever it takes to fix these roads, including paying more in taxes.
"Everyone else has nice roads; why can't we," said Lisa Zimmerman.
The Michigan County Road Association report laid out the troubled numbers with how bad of shape the thousands of miles of county roads and bridges are in.
"We just have potholes everywhere," said Zimmerman. "You turn around, and if you're going to fix it, shut it down. I don't care if it takes a whole year to shut down, a whole freeway, just get it done the first time."
Detroiters like Zimmerman and Aubrey Swann are passionate about packing potholes.
"It's pothole heaven most of the time, so generally hard on your suspension and your undercarriage," said Aubrey Swann.
The county road association needs $4.1 billion this year, with more than $265 million for bridges, $819 million for maintenance, and nearly $175 million for equipment.
To maintain and repair all county roads in Michigan, almost $2.8 billion is needed. However, when you take the amount of money needed and subtract the money provided to the county roads, there is a $2.4 billion shortage.
Zimmerman has lived in Detroit her whole life and Swann for 14 years.
"They're not all horrible. But I would give it a solid 5.5, a 6 out of 10," Swann said.
"I don't care," said Zimmerman. "We need to get the roads done, so if it must come out of our pockets, so be it. Let's just get the roads done so we have nice roads to drive on, so I'm not spending thousands of dollars getting my car fixed."
Michigan has the nation's fourth-largest local road system, so it costs a lot of money to get these roads fixed and into proper shape.
A key part of the report is who should cough up this money to fix the thousands of miles of county roads and thousands of bridges.
The state will have to come up with that solution, and that could end up costing taxpayers.
