SPRING 2013 A emscopequarterly publication of SEMCOG, the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments WHOAdding fuel to theWILL transportation funding PAY? issue SPRING - 2013 emscope 2012-2013 Officers Table of Contents Michael Sedlak Commentary - Michael Sedlak, SEMCOG Chairperson Southeast Michigan Council of Governments Chairperson 1001 Woodward Avenue, Suite 1400 Clerk, 2 The time to invest is now! Detroit, Michigan 48226-1904 Green Oak Township 313-961-4266 • Fax 313-961-4869 www.semcog.org Joan Gebhardt 3 The time has come to deal with transportation First Vice Chair facebook.com/SEMCOG twitter.com/SEMCOG Treasurer, semcog.org/blog.aspx youtube.com/SEMCOG Schoolcraft College 8 So what’s the problem? Jeffrey Jenks Vice Chairperson Cover photo: Commissioner, 12 So what’s the solution? This issue of Semscope brings transportation funding into the forefront for lo- Huntington Woods cal government officials, residents, and lawmakers. The complex nature of the issue – and the need to fund transportation improvements differently – becomes even more critical as electric vehicles become more Phil LaJoy 13 Contacts and resources mainstream. This photo was taken at the charging station at Vice Chairperson DTE Energy headquarters on Tueday, April 9, 2013. Supervisor, Canton Township 14 General Assembly March 28, 2013 • Suburban Collection Showplace, Novi Charles Pugh Preparation of this document was financed in part through grants Vice Chairperson from and in cooperation with the Michigan Department Council President, of Transportation with the assistance of the U.S. Department of City of Detroit 16 Public outreach: Clean air and carpooling Transportation’s Federal Highway Administration and Federal Transit Administration, the U.S. Environmental Protection Kathy D. Vosburg Agency, and the U.S. Department of Housing and Vice Chairperson Urban Development. Commissioner, Macomb County Please direct any questions about this publication to Sue Stetler, 313-324-3428 or [email protected] John A. Scott Immediate Past Chair Semscope is a quarterly publication of SEMCOG Commissioner, Oakland County ISSN#03071-1310 Paul E. Tait Executive Director Printed on recycled paper. Michael Sedlak, SEMCOG Chair and Clerk of Green Oak Charter Township, announced the recipients of the 2013 Taubman Fellowships. (L-r) Kevin McNamara, Wayne County Commissioner, and Steven Baker, Berkley Councilman, will attend the prestigious program for Senior Executives in State and Local Government at Harvard University this summer. Commentary Transportation Funding Creating success TheCreating time hassuccess: come to deal Thein Southeast time to invest Michigan is now! Our shared outcomes I encourage you to read this issue of Semscope. It answers many of the frequently asked with transportation Michael Sedlak questions about Southeast Michigan’s transportation system and how it is funded. And I The roads we travel on, the bridges we drive over, the public transit we take, all together form an SEMCOG Chairperson hope you will share this information with your friends, neighbors, and residents. I think the inter-connected, complex, and challenged transportation system. It’s how we move people. It’s how Clerk, Green Oak Township facts show that: we move things. • Our system is large and old. It includes roads, bridges, and public transit. Let’s take a look at Southeast Michigan’s trans- • This system supports both our economic prosperity and quality of life. portation system – its current condition and opportunities for the future. • Transportation agencies are increasing the efficiency of the system, but efficiency alone will fall far short of producing the savings needed to maintain it at an acceptable level, Southeast Michigan’s let alone improve it. transportation system • Continued funding of the transportation system through the gas tax and vehicle registra- There are over 23,000 miles of public roads in tion fees is generating less money and the result is a system in decline. Southeast Michigan. That is a lot of asphalt, • Failure to invest now will cost much more in the long run. concrete, bridges, traffic signals, and even road signs to maintain and manage. What makes it These facts lead me to the unavoidable conclusion that all of us in Michigan must step even more challenging in the SEMCOG region up and raise taxes to invest in our transportation system. Note that I purposefully chose the is that many of those roads are multiple-lanes, word invest. That is exactly how my fellow elected officials in Green Oak Township and I something most other areas of the state have in communicated the merits of a property-tax millage proposal to improve roads in our com- only limited areas. Multiple-lane roads are much munity – a proposal that was overwhelmingly approved by voters in 2012. more expensive to construct and maintain than traditional two-lane roads. We attribute our successful passage of the “Green Oak Model” to informing, informing, every day for a total of 41.9 billion miles in and informing some more the merits of investing in our road system to voters. We specifically We have more miles of public roads in our 2011 alone. This number is a decrease from presented to voters what their investment would buy, and communicated the benefits of a seven-county region than exist in entire states. 2005 (48.8 billion). The economic challenges better maintained and safer system that supports economic development, quality of life, and And while we all need roads to get to work, to of the past few years are evidenced in this helps maintain and support property values. run errands, to visit family and friends, and to declining total. have fun, our transportation system is equally Our residents, like most of yours, were not eager to pay more taxes. But when presented important to business and the overall economy Of course, our transportation system doesn’t end with the facts they chose to invest in the system…and invest in the future of their com- of Southeast Michigan. Businesses must get with roads. For many, a public transit system munity. I believe we can take these lessons and apply them to increasing state investment their employees to the job site. Goods must be plays a critical role in their daily activities. For in our transportation system. The information presented in this issue of Semscope is a good delivered to local, national and global markets. some, especially those younger individuals who start to educating decision makers about the need and potential approaches to addressing If a road is congested, or in disrepair, we may want to be environmentally conscientious, bikes may be their preferred mode of transportation. the challenge. be late for work or school. Many of our region’s manufacturers use a supply-chain methodology When it comes time to move all of the goods I encourage you to help us communicate the challenges of funding our transportation where parts are delivered just-in-time to be used that are manufactured in our region, it is the system. We must increase our state investment in transportation. Increasing our investment in the assembly process. If our transportation trucks, rail systems, airplanes, and even the will yield dividends needed to support the quality of life we want for ourselves, our children, system isn’t dependable, entire manufacturing freighters that move our exports throughout and our grandchildren. We must increase that investment now. Our future depends on it! systems grind to a halt. the world. There are 3.6 million licensed drivers in South- east Michigan who drive 3.3 million vehicles on the region’s roads. That doesn’t include the thousands of passenger vehicles and trucks Travel in the region equals that travel through our region each day. These 115 million miles every day vehicles travel a lot of miles – 115 million (this is a distance 22 million miles past the sun) 2 3 SPRING - 2013 emscope Transportation Funding The time has come to deal with transportation What other taxes fund transportation? While it is not accounted for at the state level, Every time you license a vehicle, you pay a the citizens who took the recent SEMCOG survey were not all that far off when they One of the greatest challenges with using the state fee that goes toward road construction, How we pay for our believed that property taxes were a major source transportation system gas tax to fund roads is that the revenues only repair and maintenance. For cars, this vehicle- increase if more gasoline is purchased. The 19- registration fee is based on the price of the of funding for transportation projects. With the SEMCOG conducted cent state gas tax has remained at that level since vehicle. Truck registration fees are based on never-ending belt tightening that is occurring a telephone survey last 1997. In recent years, gas-tax revenues have been winter and asked a simple going down. As noted earlier, the number of Federal fuel economy standards on Southeast Michigan reduce question — True or False: miles traveled in the region has declined, but an gas tax revenues “Most funding for roads even bigger factor is that our vehicles use consid- comes from local property erably less fuel than a decade ago due to greater $400 taxes.” Fifty-one percent of fuel efficiency. To compound matters, users of $350 those surveyed incorrectly hybrid, electric, or other alternative fuel vehicles answered “True.” While pay little or no fuel taxes to support roads. As $300 many communities have we buy more fuel efficient cars, the number of been forced to dip into their gallons of gasoline used will continue to decline. $250 general operation budgets or pass millages for roads (see The gas tax is largely invisible. We know it is $200 there, but it is never itemized for the consumer. SEMCOG Chair Michael $150 Sedlak’s commentary), The answer to how much a car owner pays in property taxes account for gas taxes might startle drivers.