LANSING, MI (AP)-- The Michigan Chamber of Commerce plans a petition drive to force lawmakers to pass a road funding plan or place the issue on the ballot for voters to decide.
Group executive director Rich Studley tells Nolan Finley of the Detroit News the chamber is "tired of lame excuses" from the Legislature, which didn't pass a road-funding fix after months of negotiating over taxes and spending.
The chamber's petition drive would call for dedicating the state's 6 percent sales tax on fuel exclusively to roads. Michigan has some of the country's highest taxes at the pump because the fuel sales tax mostly goes to schools and local governments.
Studley says the threat of reconfiguring the budget to accommodate such a tax could motivate lawmakers to reach their own spending compromise.