Governor’s plan to make Michigan fuel taxes nation’s highest

Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer called Tuesday for nearly tripling Michigan’s per-gallon gasoline tax — and making the state home to the country’s highest fuel taxes — in order to improve aging roads that she warned would only get worse without a major influx of new spending.

The $2.5 billion plan would increase the 26-cent tax by 45 cents by October 2020. To alleviate the burden for some, she proposed a tax over- haul under which retirees and low-income earners would get breaks while more businesses would pay corporate income taxes.

The proposal is an attempt to reverse parts of a tax rewrite enacted by her Republican predecessor, Rick Snyder.

“No one likes to raise taxes,” she told lawmakers during her first budget address as governor.

“I wish I didn’t have to come here today and put this budget before you because I know it’s hard. But the hard truth is we got to get to work. Every day we don’t we are jeopardizing our economic future, wasting our money and endangering our people.”

Her road-funding plan is expected to face resistance in the Republican-controlled Legislature, which passed fuel and vehicle registration tax hikes that took effect in 2017 but have been criticized as not generating nearly enough revenue. Critics said the tax hikes only slowed the decline of road conditions.