Road funding bill passes Michigan House

I told my readers to expect "updates on this story as they develop" at the end of Road funding bill passes Michigan House committee.  It's time for an update from WXYZ, which reported State House approves package of bills to increase road funding.

The Michigan House of Representatives approved a package of bills that aims to put more than $1 billion toward repairing the roads. The package consists of House Bills 4505-4616.

MLive has more in Michigan House approves $1.1B roads plan, votes to eliminate Earned Income Tax Credit.

Michigan roads would see an influx of cash, but low-income workers would lose a popular tax credit, under a plan approved Wednesday in the Republican-led state House.

The 12-bill package, advanced to the Senate in a series of mostly-narrow votes, is projected to pump $1.1 billion a year into roads by 2019 without a major hike in sales or gas taxes.

The plan is largely reliant on existing state revenue, eventually dedicating $792 million a year in general fund money to roads while diverting $134 million in funding for the Michigan Economic Development Corporation.

All of that made it into the WXYZ report, but I seem to have missed this next part.

The plan would also generate some new revenue, in part, by eliminating the Michigan version of the Earned Income Tax Credit for low and middle-income workers, saving the state upwards of $115 million a year.

Democrats blasted several parts of the plan, saving their harshest criticism for the EITC elimination bill, which was narrowly approved in a 57-52 vote, with a handful of Republicans joining them in opposition.

Avoiding this is one of the reasons why I voted for Proposal 1 last month.  That it happened in the wake of its failure shows that I was still right to do so, even if I was on the losing side of the largest defeat of a state ballot measure in Michigan history.