Michigan’s high gross weight limits on trucks are “a contributing factor” to road deterioration and should be lowered, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said Wednesday.

“I think that that is one other place where we are uniquely behind where the rest of the world is,” Whitmer said during an MLive Citizen Roundtable, where three panelists joined the governor at MLive’s Grand Rapids office to discuss the $60.2 billion budget proposal she unveiled this week.

Michigan’s 164,000-pound gross weight limit is more than double the federal standard of 80,000 pounds. A truck carrying 164,000 pounds has to have 11 axles, each carrying 13,000 pounds, to operate in Michigan. Under federal rules, trucks that carry 80,000 pounds can carry 17,000 pounds each on four axles and 12,000 pounds on a steering axle.

Efforts to change Michigan’s limit to match national standards have failed in the legislature before, as there’s disagreement on whether a change to weight limits would help improve road conditions.

Whitmer said it would be hard to prove definitively how much of a factor truck weight has on road conditions, but said she does believe that it’s “a part of the problem.”

“Ultimately, bringing that weight down I think is something that makes sense,” she said.

Whitmer’s comments on truck weights came as she discussed her plan to raise the gas tax by 45 cents to improve road conditions with panelists. She said many options were considered before she and her budget team came to that conclusion, noting some of the ideas occasionally tossed around as possibilities for new road funding money - including marijuana taxes, toll roads and the lottery - don’t bring in enough to meet the $2.5 billion-per-year price tag infrastructure repair requires.

“None of them can supplant the kind of revenue that we need in order to fix the damn roads,” she said.

Governor Gretchen Whitmer talks about topics ranging from her proposed 45-cent gas tax hike to Michigan's high auto insurance rates during a citizen roundtable hosted by MLive: Posted by MLive.com on Wednesday, March 6, 2019

During the roundtable discussion, Whitmer also said she would support getting rid of the state’s new 3rd grade reading law, which requires schools to hold back children more than a grade-level behind in reading -- i.e., third-graders scoring below a second-grade reading level. The law has a number of caveats and exceptions.

“I think (the law) is destructive,” Whitmer said, later adding, “A child who can’t read isn’t going to get better because you told him he was bad. Parents aren’t going to get more engaged."

She also touched on high auto insurance costs and mental health issues.

Panelists included David Groenleer, who worked as a traffic engineer and director of engineering at the Kent County Road Commission for 35 years; Candice Crutcher, a senior studying political science and history at Eastern Michigan University, where she serves as student body president; and Susan Wakefield, who worked in public education for 30 years and is now the owner of Wakefield Consulting LLC.

MLive’s first Citizen Roundtable discussions were part of MLive’s Michigan Beyond project, which focused reporting on three issues key to Michigan’s future: the economy, education and infrastructure. Five Michigan residents sat down with gubernatorial candidates and interviewed them about their ideas to drive Michigan forward. Watch Whitmer’s Citizen’s Roundtable interview as a candidate here.