LANSING — The Michigan Infrastructure and Transportation Association (MITA) today called on gubernatorial candidate Mike Cox to pull his latest ad criticizing Pete Hoekstra for his vote on the federal road funding bill.
In his first TV spot released earlier this week, Mike Cox criticized Congressman Pete Hoekstra for supporting the reauthorization of the federal highway program that included funding for the “Bridge to Nowhere.” Congress later stripped the controversial federal earmark.
The vote on reauthorization, however, was a watershed moment for Michigan, significantly increasing the state’s return on federal gas tax dollars by approximately $286 million per year. The vote was hailed as a major victory for Michigan, as political heavyweights from the state lobbied hard to change the federal highway formula to send more money back to the state.
“For Congressman Hoekstra to vote against the federal road funding bill would have been a real slap in the face to thousands of state transportation workers whose jobs were protected and to a lot of Michigan’s top policymakers who worked very hard to improve Michigan’s status as a donor state,” said Mike Nystrom, executive vice president of the Michigan Infrastructure & Transportation Association (MITA) and co-chair of the Michigan Transportation Team. “Our state has seen hundreds of road and bridge projects completed and tens of thousands of jobs created as a result of Hoekstra’s vote.”
Since the 1950s when Eisenhower began building the interstate highway system and levied a federal gas tax, Michigan has been considered a ‘donor state’ – sending more federal gas tax dollars to Washington than the state receives in aid. Today as a result of SAFETEA-LU, which was passed in 2006, Michigan’s donor status has been reduced to 92 cents for every dollar we send to Washington. According to the Coalition for Donor State Equity, “Michigan has ‘donated’ $1,720,000,000 to improve roads in other states since 1956.” (http://www.donorequity.org/res/state/?state=MI)
“Mike Cox was just forced to amend the same ad for using old video footage without the permission of the participants, and now he’s politicizing a vote that was clearly in Michigan’s best interest,” Nystrom said. “While we can appreciate strong and vigorous campaign dialogue, with a very serious financial crisis facing the state, we can’t afford for any of our gubernatorial candidates to trivialize the discussion of our most pressing issues.”
MITA represents a broad spectrum of highway construction companies and suppliers that help build a better Michigan infrastructure from the bottom up. They have been a leading voice for securing adequate transportation funding at the federal and state levels. The organization has not made any endorsements in the race for governor. For more information, visit www.mi-ita.com or www.drivemi.org.
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(HR 3, Roll Call Vote 453, 07/29/06)
Contact: Mike Nystrom, Executive Vice President, MITA (517) 347-8336 – office (517) 896-1493 – cell