WINDSOR, Ont. — Michigan’s Senate economic development committee rejected the government-backed Windsor-Detroit bridge Thursday, throwing the fate of the $1-billion crossing into question.
Gov. Rick Snyder, the driving force to secure political approval in the state, was scrambling to determine what to do next after a surprising 3-2 vote within the seven-member committee to reject legislation to build the bridge. Two members abstained from voting.
“Today was an unfortunate setback but we look forward to continuing the discussion,” said Ken Silfven, Snyder’s deputy press secretary “The best thing at this point is to have a cooling-off period and then keep working to find more common ground. The benefits of this project are too important to ignore. Our preference is to continue working toward a legislative solution, but for now we’ll just take it a day at a time.”
Approval in Michigan is the last major hurdle before construction can begin on the downriver Detroit River International Crossing.
There was some suggestion earlier Thursday that if the bill was rejected by the economic committee, Senate Majority Floor Leader Randy Richardville would take control by moving the legislation to the senate government operations committee which he chairs.
The Canadian government has offered Michigan $550 million US to pay its share of construction costs for the project, but that apparently was not enough to offset intense lobbying and hefty political donations by Ambassador Bridge billionaire owner Matty Moroun, who is fighting to protect his $60 million in annual toll revenues and millions more in duty free sales of goods and gas.
Moroun’s son and bridge company executive Matthew Moroun praised the committee’s decision.
“We applaud the committee for its efforts in acting as a jury in hearing all the facts,” said the vice-president for the bridge company. “The Michigan Department of Transportation had a bad case to make as the bridge traffic reports and financial impact testimony before the committee clearly showed.
“Since 2006, when the initial effort to build this bridge began, the facts have proven it to be unjustified and unneeded. The Ambassador Bridge is the most efficient border crossing in North America and our mission remains to make it the absolute best border crossing.”
Committee chairman Mike Kowall voted against the bill.
He told The Star afterwards there simply isn’t enough traffic to justify construction of the DRIC bridge and fears toll revenues will not cover the costs. He wants to see more detailed economic analysis of the project and better defined construction cost estimates.
“We are being extremely careful, not only with our tax dollars on our side, but for those people in Canada as well,” he said. “We have to ensure it’s money well spent and we get a return on dollars spent on both sides. If tolls don’t cover the bond payments, where is the money going to come from?”
Source
Windsor-Detroit bridge: Michigan Senate committee rejects new Canadian border crossing | News | National Post
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