But above all, try something!
… Franklin D. Roosevelt
DETROIT — Michigan roads, everybody admits, are in horrible shape; the worst in the nation, by most accounts, and getting worse fast. Within six years more than half of them will be in less than “fair” condition, according to the Citizens’ Research Council of Michigan, the oldest and most highly respected think tank in the state.
The good news is that everyone now agrees something has to be done, and relatively quickly — and that it will cost money, a lot of money — likely a new $2.6 billion a year for a decade – which is much more than it would have if the state had spent what it should have to maintain the roads and bridges years ago.
“There’s no way we are going to fix this problem … without coming up with new revenue for infrastructure,” Michigan Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey (R-Jackson) said after new Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s state of the state speech last month.
Republicans weren’t saying that a year ago. But Whitmer, a Democrat, won a landslide victory on the slogan “Just fix the damn roads,” last year. Republicans previously had eight years in which they controlled all branches of government and utterly failed to enact anything that came close to addressing the problem.
Now, they finally appear to get it.
But here comes the hard part: How does the state raise that revenue? Bridge, the online magazine published by the nonprofit Center for Michigan, last week published a piece listing “eight big ideas” to come up with the revenue and their pros and cons.
These ranged from politically impossible ‘solutions’ that would take years, such as amending the state constitution to allow a graduated income tax, to the not-really-relevant, such as reforming the school funding mechanism, Proposal A, to more realistic ideas.
The two “ideas” easiest to accomplish: Either get the money by raising the tax on gas at the pump, or by raising the state sales tax from six to seven percent, and devoting the new revenue to the roads.
Both have their drawbacks, but would get the job done. Democrats are less inclined to favor the sales tax idea, since they see it as a regressive tax that would more unfairly target the poor.
Those who are against raising fuel taxes note that gasoline and diesel in Michigan would then cost more than in most states.
True – but drivers in Lansing, Grand Rapids or even Detroit aren’t about to drive to Toledo to fill up their cars, no matter what. Plus, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine is proposing raising taxes at the pump by 18 cents a gallon, which would erase much of the difference.
The fact is that Michigan’s entire tax system is a Rube Goldberg or, more correctly, a Larry, Moe and Curly mess that probably merits a complete overhaul — but that’s not going to happen soon.
The roads can’t wait. In my opinion, having followed this issue many years, raising fuel taxes at the pump is probably the best and easiest solution, and one that has a sort of rough justice: Those who drive more would pay more. But there’s another problem with road funding in the state, one that seldom gets mentioned:
The way in which any money for the roads is divvied up is based on an archaic formula, in which MDOT, the Michigan Department of Transportation, get 39.1 percent; county road commissions get the same, and city and villages get the 21.8 percent left over.
This may have made a lot of sense in 1919, or even in 1951, when that formula was set. But today, which there are nine times as many miles of county roads as state roads, it is the state roads which carry a majority of the miles driven — especially by those big heavy trucks that quickly wear roads out.
Obviously, any new road money should be divided up according to where the need is greatest – but before that can happen, Public Act 51, the law setting that formula, would have to be overhauled.
Anyone who really wants to understand why the automobile state has let its roads fall apart, and take a serious look at the options to fix them, ought to look at the Citizens’ Research Council’s new report, “Evaluating Michigan’s Options to Increase Road Funding,” which can easily be found and read for free online.
However, once again, there are no perfect solutions. If Michigan wants to keep the jobs and residents it has – let alone attract new ones — it needs to fix the roads, by any means necessary — soon.
Naturally, this should be done in the best and most fiscally prudent way possible. But letting the “perfect be the enemy of the good,” would be a serious mistake. Michigan lawmakers have only a limited time to come up with a way to fix the roads.
They won’t be the only ones in trouble if they fail.
Footnote: Three years ago, legislators did enact a package providing $1.2 billion a year in “new” money for the roads – except starting in 2021, half of that money is to come out of the already cash-strapped general fund, which would almost certainly mean cuts in aid to higher education, and perhaps things like foster care and prisons.
Watch for Democrats to fight to change that.
