Last weekend I ran into the managing director of the road commission for one of our state’s mid-sized counties.
She’s both an efficient manager and an intelligent observer of the pulse of her county, which is half urban, half rural. She knows better than most of us that our state's roads are falling apart.
Last year, despite public outrage over all the potholes and broken axles, our legislators once again failed to fix this. All they would do is stick a sales tax increase on the May ballot, one that would provide some money for the roads, as well as a cornucopia of other things. I asked my friend if she thought the sales tax would pass.
“No,” she said, looking somewhere between sad and grimly resigned. Her answer didn’t surprise me.
What’s more, though I have been reporting on the need to fix the roads for years, I haven’t even decided how I will vote.
But I do know this proposal is further proof of our lawmakers’ failure to do their jobs. The main culprit here is former House Speaker Jase Bolger, who refused to do what every responsible politician from Governor Snyder to former Senate Majority Leader Randy Richardville knew was necessary:
Raise our taxes to fix the roads. That’s what representative democracy is all about. It’s not clear why Bolger wouldn’t agree. He was term-limited, and his checkered legislative past means his political career is likely over.
All he would do is pass the buck to the citizens. This was a bad idea for all sorts of reasons. Not only is this not the best or fairest way to get the money, it doesn’t raise enough for the roads.
If passed, it won’t even really produce significant road revenue for a couple of years. The state will have to spend more than ten million to hold an election, and meanwhile, budget planning is on hold.
Governor Snyder has admitted those forces supporting the road plan will need twelve to fifteen million to buy advertising to persuade voters if they are to have a chance to win.
Yet as the Detroit News reports in a story today, the money doesn’t seem to be there. The Michigan Chamber of Commerce seems unlikely to help fund such a campaign. They were very much in favor of raising taxes on fuel.
But some of its members would be hurt by the sales tax. The Michigan Manufacturers Association says it is broke and can’t help.
Meanwhile, groups like the Koch brothers’ Americans for Prosperity are gearing up to oppose the sales tax. Some Democrats and other groups who stand up for the working poor will back the proposal, but their clients are notoriously unlikely to vote in a spring election.
If they were responsible stewards of our state’s best interests, the current legislature would immediately end our misery and the need for an election by raising the gas tax to fix the roads. With gas prices so low, this is the perfect time to do so.
Sadly, that’s unlikely.
The senate majority leader is busy instead trying to reduce construction workers’ pay. To paraphrase the old Russian comedian Yakov Smirnoff, “What a state.”
Jack Lessenberry is Michigan Radio's political analyst. You can read his essays online at michiganradio.org. Views expressed in his essays are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of Michigan Radio, its management or the station licensee, The University of Michigan.
