“If Michigan’s transportation system is to continue to serve the state adequately, our investment in transportation must increase significantly,” the task force report stated.

The task force was created to find ways to pay for maintenance and repair of the state’s roads, bridges, landing strips and other infrastructure. The group found that the state will need to invest at least $6.1 billion annually to achieve minimum upkeep of roads.

The bulk of funding for transportation infrastructure traditionally has come from the federal gas tax, state vehicle registration fees and the state fuel tax. However, with Americans driving fewer miles as gas prices rise, revenues from those sources are declining, said Bill Shreck, director of communications for the Michigan Department of Transportation, or MDOT.

At the same time, the cost of infrastructure and maintenance resources, including steel, concrete and salt, is rising.

“Most all of those are up 30 percent or more in the last few years,” Shreck said.

Gas taxes and vehicle registration fees generated about $3.4 billion for Michigan’s transportation infrastructure last year. But that’s far too little, Shreck said.

If the funding problem isn’t addressed, Michigan won’t generate enough state and local funds in 2010 to qualify for matching federal transportation funding, he said.

“We’re looking at over $2 billion that we would leave on the table between 2010 and 2013,” Shreck said.

Premedical freshman Angela Marchand said she already drives on the highway more often than she used to in an effort to avoid deteriorating local roads. She said she’d be willing to pay “a smidgen” more to pay for maintenance.

“The roads are kind of crappy and crumbly,” she said.

A national report found that Michigan has the eighth worst road system in the nation, and the 16th worst bridge system. The task force also found that Michigan generates as little as one-tenth the transportation revenue of some other states.

MDOT released its winter service memo to municipal leaders Nov. 14. Like the rest of Michigan’s transportation system, funds for winter road maintenance are tight this year.

“(MDOT) and its contract agencies have found it necessary to reform our practices to be more efficient with the limited dollars available,” MDOT Director of Governmental Affairs Ron DeCook stated in the memo.

As a result, more of the state’s roads will be classified as priority level two. Unlike level one roads, which are continuously plowed during and after a snowfall, level two roads are cleared after a storm “as soon as reasonably possible without working overtime.”

No action has been taken to propose extra funding, but the state Legislature is on break until Dec. 2, said Mike Nystrom, a member of the task force and spokesman for the Michigan Infrastructure & Transportation Association.

“We’ll see what happens when they come back,” he said.

There have been more than 80 meetings in Lansing in the past six months to discuss the need for more funding, Nystrom said.

“Every one of (legislators) know that something needs to be done, there’s just not a consensus yet about how,” he said.