Good Question: Who Should Build Bridge To Canada?
By Christy Strawser
CBS Detroit Managing Editor
Gov. Rick Snyder reiterated this week that a second public bridge between the United States and Canada is "critically important," a position that puts him squarely in the crosshairs of Ambassador Bridge owner Manuel "Matty" Moroun and legislators in his own party.
An initial vote on a proposal has been delayed in the Michigan Legislature. (More on this, here).
But with the position of some opponents appearing to soften this week, a second, publicly funded bridge appears closer to reality than ever before.
But is it a good idea?
A Republican Senate source told WWJ Lansing Bureau Chief Tim Skubick the Detroit Democrat Virgil Smith is ready to vote 'yes' on a proposed second bridge. If it happens, it means the governor has the four votes needed to move it out of committee and to the Senate floor.
Snyder's plan call for a second bridge to Canada two miles to the south of the existing bridge, and he says it could be done through federal grants and matching funds from Canada without any Michigan taxpayer dollars.
The public bridge would cost up to $2.2 billion, according to a September report from the Anderson Economic Group. Moroun's bridge would cost an estimated $400 to $500 million.
Moroun has taken out aggressive ads against the bridge and the governor, claiming a public project would cost jobs and taxpayer dollars. In an interview earlier this year, Moroun explained to WWJ newsradio that a publicly funded bridge would cost jobs at his own bridge and trucking companies.
He has long proposed another solution: Letting him build his own second bridge.
"I don't know what the governor's doing," Moroun said of the governor earlier this year. "He's probably going to win. I can't stop him, but he should be stopped. He's doing the wrong thing."
Snyder contends the public bridge project would create construction and trucking jobs, ease congestion, strengthen the state economy and help establish Michigan as a hub for global commerce.
"When you have a private company willing to take all the cost and all the risk in this economy and invest in Detroit, it's appalling that we even have this fight," Moroun's wife, Nora Moroun, told WWJ this spring.
Snyder said in January he secured a unique agreement from the Federal Highway Administration that would allow the state to count $550 million that Canada has offered for the project toward Michigan's federal match. With that, Snyder said Michigan would not take on any debt for the project.
