(Source: MIRS.news, Published 12/3/2024) Every year, $5 million would be set aside for an emergency infrastructure disaster relief fund under legislation that moved out of a House committee Tuesday 

A high priority for Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in lame duck, HB 5945 moved out of the Transportation, Infrastructure and Mobility Committee with a substitute in a party-line 7-1-4 vote.   

The substitute breaks a tie-bar with HB 5944 . It creates a board to oversee the distribution of the emergency dollars composed of members appointed by the County Road Association of Michigan, the Michigan Municipal League, the Michigan Department of Transportation, the Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy and the Department of State.   

Ed Noyola and Ron Kendall from the County Road Association of Michigan testified in support of the bills at the last committee hearing on November 14.  

Noyola gave a slideshow presentation of various natural disasters in Michigan that he said had a large financial strain on Michigan. He said a fiscal recovery program report from 2020 showed "we're not really taking care of our members very well when it came to disasters."   

He said road agencies are taking on the brunt of the financial burden from these natural disasters.   

"Over the past decade, there has been billions, billions of dollars in damage," Noyola said. "The dollar amount is compounded when it comes to replacing our facilities."