Bill Text: MI HR0279 | 2009-2010 | 95th Legislature | Introduced
Bill Title: A resolution calling on all fifty states and their congressional delegations to question the authority of the federal government, under the 10th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, to collect a federal gas tax from each state and then hold the dollars hostage by requiring each state to provide matching funds to receive those dollars back and memorialize Congress to reconfigure the distribution of transportation money to the states.
Spectrum: Slight Partisan Bill (Republican 39-19)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2010-05-06 - Referred To Committee On Transportation [HR0279 Detail]
Download: Michigan-2009-HR0279-Introduced.html
Reps. Pearce, Opsommer, Ball, Tyler, Denby, Bolger, Walsh, Wayne Schmidt, Kurtz, Stamas, Agema, Lori, DeShazor, Amash, Green, Paul Scott, Knollenberg, Haines, Rick Jones, Moss, Proos, Hansen, Daley, Horn, Moore, Valentine, Mayes, Kennedy, Clemente, Crawford, McMillin, Caul, Rocca, LeBlanc, Marleau, Sheltrown, Nerat, Rogers, Roy Schmidt, Lemmons, Dean, Terry Brown, Polidori, Womack, Pavlov, Booher, Lund, Hildenbrand, Meltzer, Schuitmaker, Haugh, Haase, Barnett, Huckleberry, Durhal, Bettie Scott, Kowall and Meekhof offered the following resolution:
House Resolution No. 279.
A resolution calling on all fifty states and their congressional delegations to question the authority of the federal government, under the 10th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, to collect a federal gas tax from each state and then hold the dollars hostage by requiring each state to provide matching funds to receive those dollars back and memorialize Congress to reconfigure the distribution of transportation money to the states.
Whereas, Eighteen cents of the price of every gallon of gasoline sold in Michigan and other states goes to the Federal Highway Trust Fund as the federal motor fuel tax. Through a complicated formula of allocations from the U.S. Department of Transportation and congressional appropriations this money is eventually redistributed to the states as federal aid for highways and other transportation projects. For several decades, Michigan has been a donor state for transportation dollars, contributing a greater proportionate share to the Federal Highway Trust Fund than the share of federal transportation funds returned to Michigan. In recent years, Michigan has received only between 87 and 92 percent of the share of the federal tax revenue that the state generates. In effect, Michigan has subsidized transportation projects in other states to the detriment of our state infrastructure and in disproportion to our contribution to the national economy; and
Whereas, Congress declared the interstate highway system completed in 1991, fulfilling the original goals of the federal highway program. Currently, only about 60 percent of the federal fuel taxes paid by motorists go to roads. There were 7,000 individual earmarks enacted in the transportation reauthorization bill in 2005, making it one of the largest pork spending programs in the federal budget; and
Whereas, The contribution imbalance has created a serious financial and safety challenge for Michigan and other donor states. The federal government should adopt a policy whereby all but one percent of federal gas tax monies collected in each state would remain in the state. One percent of the dollars collected should be designated to maintain the federal highway system in less populated states. The remaining 99 percent should be kept by states to maintain the federal highways within their borders and allocated for any other state transportation purposes at the discretion of each state. This would eliminate the issue of donor states and keep all but one percent of the federal gas tax funds in each state; now, therefore, be it
Resolved by the House of Representatives, That we call on all fifty states and their congressional delegations to question the authority of the federal government, under the 10th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, to collect a federal gas tax from each state and then hold the dollars hostage by requiring each state to provide matching funds to receive those dollars back and memorialize Congress to reconfigure the distribution of transportation money to the states; and be it further
Resolved, That copies of this resolution be transmitted to the President of the United States Senate, the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, the members of the Michigan congressional delegation, and the Governors of each state.
