Governor Whitmer Proposes New Taxes to Fix Michigan Roads

LANSING — Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is calling for new taxes on corporations and marijuana as part of what she’s calling a $3 billion plan to fix Michigan roads.

The plan will “make sure that corporations pay their fair share to do business in Michigan” and raise $1.7 billion a year from them “without putting the costs on the backs of everyday Michiganders,” her office said in an announcement.

The plan did not specify how or if Whitmer wants to raise the state’s 6% corporate income tax. Her office expects that to be a point of negotiation with the Michigan Legislature, including new Republican leadership in the House.

It’s the latest infrastructure plan from Whitmer, who won office in 2018 on a pledge to “fix the damn roads.”

Her 2019 proposal to raise fuel taxes by 45 cents per gallon was not taken up in the Legislature. The next year, Whitmer went it alone with a $3.5 billion bonding plan for upkeep and reconstruction of some of Michigan’s busiest roadways, but the state will spend decades paying off the debt and the money is drying up.

In announcing her new plan, Whitmer’s office said the new business tax plan is aimed at “big tech industries” such as Amazon because “these corporations haul heavy weights using semi-trucks that deteriorate roads and bridges faster than commuter vehicles.”

Michigan allows some of the highest truck weight limits in the nation, which some groups have pointed to as a source of road deterioration, but there’s been little interest from policymakers in revising the limits since Whitmer floated a lower limit in 2019.

Whitmer will also propose levying an additional 32% wholesale tax on marijuana products to match those applied to tobacco products like cigarettes. Her office’s budget recommendation last week also called for expanding that tax to nicotine products that don’t contain tobacco, like vapes and pouches, which have avoided taxation for years.