2008 House Bill 5808 ↩

Senate Roll Call 576: Passed

To adopt a compromise version of the 2008-2009 Transportation budget reported by a House-Senate conference committee. This would appropriate $3.612 billion in gross spending, compared to $3.360 billion, which was the FY 2007-2008 amount enrolled in 2007. Of this, $1.460 billion is federal money (mostly from gas taxes), compared to $1.200 billion the previous year. A controversy over funding for a Detroit River International Crossing (DRIC) project held up the budget and was resolved with an agreement to allow the Department of Transportation to proceed with various preliminary activities for a publically-funded bridge including acquisition of some property, but cannot commit the state to actual construction. The controversy is centered on the fact that the owner of the existing Ambassador Bridge is willing to build an additional bridge with little or no taxpayer money.