Michigan roads, bonds & debt and politics
Michigan roads, bonds & debt and politics
As the news reports today, Governor Whitmer is planning to use bonds to raise money for fixing the roads. As usual, anything Whitmer causes the Republicans brains to explode and begin blathering utter nonsense in contradiction to reality, facts and, well, history.
In one exchange I placed the blame on our road conditions squarely on former governor Republican John Engler who was in office from 1991–2002. One respondent blamed his successor, Jennifer Granholm. As usual, facts and history are tough lessons to get into Republican heads
Per usual Republican financial wizardry, Engler convinced voters we could have stuff but not have to pay for it. He refused to raise taxes, indeed cut them so much that essential services in this state went lacking. Engler got into office in 1991 and per one of the links below “by 1997, Michigan’s highways were among the worst in the country, with only one state having a higher proportion of structurally deficient bridges.” Business leaders wanted a 10–12 cent increase in the gas tax, but Engler and Republicans would only raise it 4 cents in 1997 and it hasn’t been increased since.
Well, back to bonds. All the anti-Whitmers are bugging out about her using bonds (i.e. debt) to fix the roads. It should be noted that the legislature refused to increase the gas tax. [Side note: I think sales taxes like this are highly regressive and if we had raised the gas tax significantly then or now under Whitmer there should be some give-back to people on the lower economic strata. That said, we may need to come up with another way to fund roads. A “miles driven” approach might be workable, but would require SoS offices to verify odometers].
Interestingly, #History, Republican Engler first began using bonds (debt) to pay for road repairs! Granted, Granhom followed him in this as well but it should be noted that Grandholm, like Whitmer, was saddled with a Republican controlled legistature eager to obstruct a Democratic woman governor. In contrast, Engler had a complete Republican legislature his entire time in office. Republican Rick Snyder, governor from 2011 through 2018 also had a complete Republican legislature his entire tenure.
Republicans have had complete control of the entire government for 20 out of 30 years and complete control or partial of the legislature the entire 30 years and our roads got worse and worse and worse.
So who is really to blame?
As usual, Republicans create and leave a mess and Democrats are expected to clean it up while being obstructed
