Bill
SB 448
Establishes a state-administered Road Investment Incentive Program that matches local road spending dollar-for-dollar to fund construction, maintenance, and repair of local roads a
Status: Introduced Feb 18, 2025; referred to Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure (most recent referral recorded June 26, 2025).
Summary — purpose and intent
- Establishes a state-administered Road Investment Incentive Program (administered by the State Transportation Department) that provides matching grants to local road agencies to encourage local investment in construction, maintenance, and repair of locally controlled highways, roads, streets, and bridges.
Key provisions
- Grants are provided on a dollar-for-dollar matching basis: for every dollar a local road agency spends on eligible projects, the program may provide one matching dollar.
- Eligible uses: construction, maintenance, or repair of highways, roads, streets, and bridges under the jurisdiction of the local road agency receiving the grant.
- Local match restrictions: funds used by the local agency to match the state grant may not come from federal or state sources (i.e., the match must be locally sourced).
- Program cap: the total amount of grants awarded under the program in aggregate must not exceed the amount equal to "1 mill on each dollar of the taxable value of all taxable property within the jurisdiction of this state." (A mill is typically equal to $1 of tax per $1,000 of taxable value; the bill ties the program cap to that statewide millage-equivalent.)
- Administration and transparency: the Department must create application, decision, award, and distribution criteria and publish those criteria on the Department’s website.
- Verification and reporting: local road agencies that receive matching grants must annually verify the amount and source of the local funds dedicated to the projects and used as the match.
Who is affected
- Primary beneficiaries: local road agencies (counties, cities, towns, villages) that own and control local roads, streets, and bridges and that can provide local non-federal/non-state matching funds.
- State agency impact: Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) (or the State Transportation Department) will administer the program, develop application and award criteria, and perform verification — creating administrative responsibilities and costs.
- Local taxpayers and governments: because local matching funds must be locally sourced, participating jurisdictions may rely on existing local transportation budgets, local levies, bonds, or other local revenue mechanisms to provide matches.
Procedural / timeline notes
- The bill would amend the Michigan Transportation Fund statutes (1951 PA 51; MCL 247.651–247.675) by adding section 10q.
- Current status: referred to the Senate Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure for consideration (June 26, 2025 entry). If advanced out of committee and enacted, the Department would need to promulgate application/award criteria and set up program processes before grants could be distributed.
- Fiscal impacts: the cap tied to a 1‑mill equivalent limits the program’s total size; administrative costs for state verification and program administration are implied but not quantified in the bill text.
Practical considerations
- The dollar-for-dollar match incentivizes increased local spending on road work but excludes use of federal and state funds as the match, potentially steering localities toward local tax or bond financing for match dollars.
- The statewide cap may limit program availability relative to local demand; the annual verification requirement increases reporting obligations for recipients and oversight duties for the Department.
- Transparency requirement (posting criteria) aims to make awards predictable and publicly accessible.
If you want, I can:
- Draft a short fiscal checklist of state and local budget items the bill would likely affect;
- Provide sample language options for clarifying the mill cap or the acceptable forms of local match (e.g., permissibility of bond proceeds, special assessments, millages).
Compiled from official sources — confirm details with the bill’s official record.
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