Years ago, I asked a free-market conservative what the core of his political philosophy was, and he said “there ain’t no such thing as a free lunch.” I’ve never been tempted very much by laissez-faire economics, but he was right about that.
There is no such thing as a free lunch, or a free ride. For years, however, our politicians have been trying to fool us into thinking there was one, by passing costs down to the next generations. This has gotten worse in Michigan since term limits, and Republicans are more to blame than Democrats, since they’ve been in power most of the time.
That’s a big part of the reason why we have the worst roads in the nation and our schools are so bad. Now, however, we have a governor at least who is a responsible grown-up.
Gretchen Whitmer knows that the longer we put off fixing the roads and trying to fix the schools, the worse both our roads and schools will get, and the more impossible it will be for Michigan to attract the sort of new jobs that might enable us to reclaim our former prosperity.
So, instead of lying to the people or just dithering, she this week proposed raising the tax on gasoline by 45 cents a gallon, which is how much it will take to fix the roads.
She also wants to spend $507 million more a year on our schools, and recover some of that money by putting a six percent tax on two kinds of small businesses that have previously been untaxed – Limited Liability Corporations, or LLCs, and S-corporations. These are sometimes called pass-through mechanisms, because their profits just go to someone’s income.
Well, judged by the reaction from, for example, the Detroit News, you would think she was calling for Soviet-style collectivization of agriculture.
Columnists and conservative editorial writers are moaning about a “return to the lost decade,” meaning the economic doldrums they blame on Jennifer Granholm.
Well, now for the truth. Granholm was not a very good or very decisive governor, and unlike Whitmer, she had no legislative experience. But a lot of the economic problems she faced were national – remember the Great Recession?
We had a Republican president for most of Granholm’s two terms, and a Republican-controlled state senate for all of her time. And Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop had no interest in bipartisan cooperation, and was a master obstructionist.
Republicans lost every statewide office last year, but thanks to gerrymandering, the GOP still controls both houses of the legislature. Thanks to term limits, we have a Speaker of the House who is barely 30 years old from the tiny hamlet of Levering, where he attended and taught in fundamentalist Christian schools. To say he has a provincial outlook might be an understatement.
His name is Lee Chatfield, and he opposes raising the gas tax by the necessary amount, saying the very idea makes his voters furious. He should come see how people in the populated part of the state feel about broken axles.
There is no such thing as a free lunch. By the way, most of my income in recent years comes from my S-Corp, and I am a long way from rich. Despite a generous exemption, I will be hit if the governor gets her way on taxing my tiny corporation.
But I hope she does. I need to pay my fair share, as do we all. Building a future means hard work and sacrifice. We need responsible grown-ups in government, and we need to stop tolerating irresponsible behavior. Otherwise, we’ll be punished worse than you may know.
