Hi, I’m Chris…I handle transportation policy for the Municipal League and will be working with the Get Michigan Moving Campaign.  I had the opportunity this past week to travel the Amtrak Blue Water line from East Lansing to Chicago with a group of state legislators, staff and MDOT officials to learn about Amtrak’s presence in Michigan and the Midwest.  We spent the ride down hearing presentations from Amtrak and MDOT staff about hi-speed rail development in Michigan and future plans for rail expansion in the state.  Michigan has $800 million in ARRA hi-speed rail project applications awaiting approval from Washington and we heard detailed explanations of each project and learned about the technical aspects of bringing hi-speed train travel into Michigan.  Did you know that Michigan has the only stretch of track in the Midwest capable of hi-speed passenger travel?  The corridor from Kalamazoo, MI to Porter, IN was recently upgraded to allow travel at speeds of about 100 MPH!  It was an exciting day and I am eager to hear how Michigan fares when the feds announce the grant winners early next year.

Kalamazoo Train Depot

Earlier today, the Senate Appropriations committee took up SB 254(S-2).  This bill is the FY 2009-2010 transportation budget for the state of Michigan.  This budget provides $3.2 billion for all state and local transportation/transit programs throughout the state. It is main source of funding the 20,914 miles of local roads and bridges, and the 78 transit agencies that operate in every county in Michigan.

The Senate Appropriations committee has used the budget to fill gaps in the state’s general fund budget by reduce funding for our local operations. The budget will provide $16.26 million less for local roads and bridges. The budget will provide $4.28 million less for local bus operating support. The budget will provide $2 million less for the state funded AMTRAK routes (the Port Huron to Chicago line; and the Grand Rapids to Chicago line).

So what does this mean for us? It means that our local roads and bridges will continue to be underfunded. It means that our local transit operators will continue to suffer from a “death by a million cuts”. But most drastically, it means that one or both of the AMTRAK lines will cease to operate.

In these times of dwindling transportation revenues, where our communities will start facing deficits in transportation funding beginning in 2012, we can not afford for our Legislators to pile more troubles on top of all of that. See the full Issue Advisory on the current situation by clicking here.

Please visit our Action Center to call your Legislators and ask them to ACT NOW and restore these cuts!!! Ask them to ACT NOW and support the Transportation Funding Task Force (TF2) funding legislation.