History of the Board of Muskegon County Road Commission

For Muskegon County and the State of Michigan, as well as the nation, the motor vehicle and the highway has brought about a new way of life. In addition to reshaping the process of industry, commerce and agriculture, the public highway system has profoundly influenced nearly every activity of the individual, the family and the community.

Transportation occupies a position of supreme importance in today's society and economy. For many reasons over the years the administration, construction and maintenance of a public highway system has come to be recognized as a basic service of government.

The most obvious beginnings of Michigan's transportation network consisted of the Great Lakes, the rivers and Indian trails and paths. The earliest roads in the Northwest territory were built by the Federal Government or the Michigan Territorial Government; first for military purposes and second, in order to promote settlement of the territory.

After Michigan became a state in 1837, the Federal Government withdrew its support of road building and left the State with this responsibility. Because the State had limited funds to spend on roads, construction stopped and maintenance fell behind.

The very first roads were probably nothing more than areas cleared of trees, stumps and other obstacles that would permit the passage of horses and wagons. One of the first attempts at road construction was called "corduroy roads". These roads were made by placing logs on the ground without regard to size of the logs or the smoothness of the riding surface. These roads had a very unique feature in that as they wore down, the ride became smoother. As rough and uncomfortable as they were, they were highly regarded by Michigan's pioneer citizens and in fact, they referred to them as pleasure roads.

Due to the lack of maintenance and reconstruction, these early roads fell into disrepair. At the time, travel and demand for better roads was increasing. In response to this increased travel, Michigan entered what is called the "plank road" era and private companies were formed which built privately-owned roads and charged tolls. In 1848, the State Legislature passed legislation known as General Plank Road Act to regulate the operations of these businesses. Michigan was one of the first states to experiment with plank roads.

Plank roads were required to be from eight (8) to sixteen (16) feet wide and to provide a good smooth permanent road of which an eight-foot width was to consist of three-inch thick planks. The plank roads were actually well-designed roads, considering the conditions under which they were built. Many of them had ditches and a shoulder where wagons could pull off. When new, they were relatively smooth and easy on horses and passengers of wagons. The tolls for two-horse wagons and carriages and every score of neat cattle was two cent per mile and for one-horse vehicles, the rate was one cent per mile.

It was soon discovered that timber planks decayed rapidly or people stole them to use for building materials. Due to the high cost of timber, gravel was used as a maintenance material instead of rebuilding with timber. This type of maintenance marked the beginning of gravel road surfacing. Over a period of time these plank roads could not be maintained by private companies from the tolls received, and they simply went out of business. Therefore, this form of road disappeared as a way to provide for transportation.

About the time plank roads were going out, the railroads came to the Midwest and road building was neglected throughout most of the state until the turn of the century when the automobile appeared on the scene.

From the time of the earliest settlements in the State, the responsibility for construction and maintenance of roads was considered to be a local responsibility which was financed through property taxes and special assessments. Discounting the private toll roads, the only rural roads built in Michigan from 1850 – 1880 were township roads. The territorial law of 1827 had established the township as the basic unit of government responsible for roads. The new state constitution of 1850 carried this township responsibility forward and transferred to township control many of the earlier roads built by the state government.

The assignment of road responsibilities to the townships reflected the belief that road construction and maintenance was the responsibility of the people who lived along the roads. During this time, state statutes permitted the townships to require every adult male citizen residing along the road to work on construction and maintenance of the road a certain number of days each year in relation to the valuation of property or to pay a cash payment equal to the number of days required for work. Township residents who did not own property had to work one day each year or pay a tax equal to one day's labor. You could avoid laboring on the road construction only by hiring someone to work in your place; otherwise, you were fined $3.25 a day. If you showed up but loafed, you could be fined $1.00 a day. If you failed to bring a horse when required, you were fined $1.25 a day. This practice of "working on the road" was repealed in 1907.

The roads built under this township system were mainly roads to connect farms with trading centers, etc. Most often, there were no funds left to build roads to connect with other roadways or to interconnect towns. Further, the system of working the roads by inexperienced citizen labor and with untrained supervision meant that much of the road work was poorly done.

The "citizen built" tradition was the basis for the early opposition to the automobile. Citizens held the view that the roads belonged to them because they built them, and those new noisy machines frightened the horses so badly that the roads were nearly useless. Therefore, in many areas, there were attempts made to legislate automobiles off the roads.

In response to the need for better roads, and the need to interconnect roads into a logical system, six townships in Bay County joined with Bay City and West Bay City in 1883 to form a "Stone Road District". This road district was established under special legislation of the State Legislature. The success of the "Stone Road District" initiated a belief that road administration, construction and maintenance must be carried on at a higher level of government with a wider tax base. During this time, an increasing number of Michigan citizens and businesses were becoming dependent upon the interconnection of places beyond the immediate vicinity of their geographic location.

The State Legislature, in response to this identified need, passed in 1893 the County Road Act. The new law permitted a county to establish a county road commission to knit the scattered township roads into a county road system. Counties which established such systems could levy road taxes and submit bond issues for various road projects to electorate.

Establishment of county road commissions made it possible to coordinate road construction and provide more uniform maintenance and acquire better equipment. Nevertheless, it was more than a generation before all counties adopted such a system.

By 1900, some 68,000 miles of roads existed in the state. However, these roads left much to be desired as only 200 miles were surfaced with stone or macadam, and less than 8,000 miles were surfaced with gravel. The rest were simply unimproved dirt, sand or clay and many citizens would say "mud". These were not roads as we know them now, and many simply ended in places like cow pastures, in the woods or at the edge of town.

The turn of the century brought with it a public movement for more and better roads. In 1901, at the urging of automobile owners and bicycle enthusiasts, the State Legislature established a committee to study the problem of highway construction and improvements. This study committee's report recommended the establishment of a state highway commission and to amend the state constitution to eliminate the prohibition against using state funds for road improvements. In response to the study committee and public pressure, the 1903 Legislature passed legislation creating a state highway department. However, since no constitutional amendment had been submitted to the people, the State Attorney General declared the act null and void. Two years later in 1905, an amendment authorizing the state to build or aid in the building of public wagon roads was passed unanimously by the Legislature and ratified by each county in the State. At the same time, the Legislature created a state highway department, established a system of state aid for road construction and maintenance, and enacted a motor vehicle registration law.

The 1905 state aid system gave a big push to local road building and established a basis for a state-wide highway system and the beginning of improved local roads. Under this new legislation, the new State Highway Department was directed to work with townships and county road commissions in improving public wagon roads outside of the incorporated villages and cities. The State Highway Department furnished plans, instructions and advice, and by paying aid in the form of "rewards" for new construction. With the increased road construction and traffic came the need for improved maintenance as many miles of road existed in poor condition. Because of certain abuses of the reward aid formula, the State Legislature abolished this system in 1907, and enacted a cash road tax law which townships were authorized to levy a road repair tax on rural property and a highway improvement tax on all property within a township.

By 1913, the increasing use of automobiles brought an insistent demand for more and better roads. The State Legislature established a goal to establish a 3,000 mile trunkline system. Townships were given the responsibility for building these state trunkline routes and the reward system was re-established and double rewards were offered as incentive to get these roads built.

Automobile owners and registrations far exceeded new construction and maintenance. Along with the growth in ownership came the acceptance in the principle that the motorist should bear a portion of the cost. In 1913, the State Legislature imposed a horsepower tax on all motor vehicles, said revenues to be used for highway improvements. Two years later, 1915, a tax was applied to the weight of vehicles of which half of the revenues would go to the state and the remaining half equally divided by the townships and counties. These taxes marked a significant change in how the transportation systems would be financed.

Also, in 1915, the State Legislature passed the Covert Act of 1915 which allowed property owners to initiate road construction by petition, but required the landowners to pay at least half of the cost of such construction through special assessment, and the appropriate governmental unit was authorized to issue bonds to finance the general public's share. Through the passage of the Covert Act, the Legislature made it quite clear that local roads were still regarded as the primary responsibility of the property owners who benefitted from such construction. The Covert Act resulted in substantial miles of new road construction projects at the county and township level.

The significant interest in roads at the national level was reflected in the Federal Aid Road Act of 1916. This act provided for federal grants-in-aid, up to fifty percent (50%), for the cost of rural roads. The Michigan Legislature, in 1917, responded to the federal funding available by authorizing state matching monies and permitting counties and townships the authority to issue bonds to pay for local share of the cost. The Legislature also established the basis for local participation requiring counties to pay a share ranging from 25% to 50% of the total cost, based upon their assessed valuation. In 1925, a state law relieved the counties and townships of their share of federal aid roads and the state government assumed responsibility for the 50% match against federal funds.

About 1925, it had become increasingly clear that gravel roads could not withstand the volumes of traffic being generated. In response to this need to upgrade road surfaces, the State Legislature abolished the horsepower tax and imposed the first benefit tax, the gasoline tax. It was felt that this tax would place a larger share of the financial burden of road costs on the chief beneficiary – the road user.

At first, the gasoline tax went for state roads only, but in 1927, the gasoline tax was increased with the increase going to counties and townships to supplement funds raised by property taxes.

The depression in 1929 brought new funding problems, particularly for counties and townships. Property tax collections fell and tax delinquencies mounted leaving the counties and townships with substantially reduced funds. The demand for more and better roads continued during this time period. In response to this need, the State Legislature passed the McNitt Act of 1931. The McNitt Act was intended to be a property tax relief measure which it was, however, the Act also brought a major reform of local road administration.

In addition to eliminating the property tax for road purposes, the McNitt Act provided for consolidating all township roads into the county road system at a rate of 1/5 of the total township road mileage each year for a five-year period. At the end of this five-year period, no township roads would exist, and, this remains true today.

The transfer of township roads to county road commissions presented a significant problem for the various road commissions in the state in that a large portion of the township roads were semi-improved or unimproved roads which could not be economically maintained. Subsequently, the various road commissions found it necessary to spend substantial sums of money to improve these roads to a standard high enough to render minimum maintenance.

Because the financial responsibilities for roads was transferred from townships to road commissions, a greatly increased demand was placed upon road commissions by township officials and citizens to upgrade and maintain local roads. Road commissions attempted to upgrade local roads in order to get these roads into shape so that maintenance costs would be stabilized. As a result, counties were forced to curtail improvements on primary road systems to upgrade and maintain local roads.

As the depression reached its lowest point, many local units of government defaulted on road bonds and necessary operating revenues were just not available. The State Legislature recognized the serious dilemmas posed by this problem, and the need to provide public works road projects and aid the employment situation. Attempting to meet this emergency, the State legislature passed the Horton Act of 1932 which reversed the distribution of state motor vehicle tax revenues. Although amended through the years, this legislation became one of the keystone pieces of legislation forming the basic financial mechanisms of the transportation system in Michigan.

In 1938, a constitutional amendment was passed which required that all motor vehicle tax revenues be utilized exclusively for highway purposes. This reservation of motor vehicle tax revenues for highways, streets and roads has held true over the years. Presently, however, the State Legislature is debating whether these funds should be utilized exclusively for highway purposes. Currently, this debate is unresolved.

The next major road legislation, Act 51, the Motor Vehicle Highway Act, was passed in 1951. This legislation act established a classification system for all roads in the state; established a motor vehicle highway fund, a system of taxes and distribution formulas. This Act, as amended, represents the existing major road regulation and source of revenues received by the Road Commission.

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