Can't cut state budget enough to fix the roads

As lawmakers in Lansing half-heartedly attempt to appear hard at work on a road funding solution, Macomb County legislators may have the beginnings of agreement on two ideas – one small, one so big it’s probably unattainable.
Two Democrats, Rep. Marilyn Lane of Fraser and Sen. Steve Bieda of Warren, have introduced bills to cut maximum weights in half for commercial trucks. GOP Sen. Jack Brandenburg of Harrison Township likes that idea.
But Brandenburg also believes that the resounding defeat of Proposal 1 last week indicates that taxes are off the table. Finding money for potholes and crumbling bridges should be accomplished through budget cuts, he said.

The Republicans who control the House and Senate may want to consider that even The Detroit News editorial board, a bastion of Michigan conservatism for decades, conceded that more taxes are the only realistic answer.
In its Sunday editorial, the News called for a “clean” funding bill for roads only, without add-ons, and without resorting to “gimmicks” by trying to raid pools of money within the state budget. In the closing paragraphs at the end of the commentary, they wrote this message to Lansing:

Courage is demanded here, and leadership. (Gov. Rick) Snyder knows the only real choice is to raise the fuel tax or vehicle registration fees, or both. Lawmakers must come to that understanding, too. If they can find some lower priority spending to cut in the general fund budget, by all means, throw that into the mix.

But the sooner both lawmakers and the public come to the reality that repairing long neglected roads requires more money than Michigan has, the sooner the roads will get fixed.

In a statement, Lane conceded that truck weights are only “one piece of the road funding puzzle,” and Bieda said the weight-limits bills are just the beginning of “rolling up our sleeves” and getting to work on a solution.

But these two lawmakers surely know that their first instinct was to go after the most popular piece of the pie, and a very small one at that. What’s more, the public strongly supports lower truck weights – for the obvious benefits of less road wear and tear – but the truckers have shown they’re ready to fight back.

The trucking companies argue that Michigan’s allowable weight per axle is not out of line, and they converged on the Capitol during the final days of the making of Proposal 1 to oppose weight limits and additional fees. Nothing comes easy on this issue, even when legislators take the road most traveled.

Brandenburg said last week that he would favor additional fees on heavy trucks if a push for weight limits falters. Those fees will also face opposition from those who ship our goods.

At the same time, the senator has dubiously concluded that Proposal 1’s landslide loss shows that the public has ruled out new taxes. Clearly, the anti-tax crowd got out to vote in relatively large numbers last Tuesday, but the polling suggests voters were specifically denouncing the complex and convoluted proposal on the ballot.  

A late-April poll by EPIC-MRA of Lansing found that nearly two-thirds of voters opposed Proposal 1, but by roughly the same margin they expressed support for a sales tax increase that raised revenues only for the roads. Of course, addressing the deep public cynicism toward the quality of Michigan road construction also must be a top priority for lawmakers.

The governor and Brandenburg, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, are at odds on the “what’s next?” agenda. Republican Sen. Tory Rocca of Sterling Heights and GOP Rep. Jeff Farrington of Utica appear to favor the Brandenburg approach.

“He (Gov. Rick Snyder) is still talking about more taxes. That’s ludicrous,” Brandenburg told The Macomb Daily. “We have to find the money in our budget. I say cut everything. Not much from any one place but enough to find $400 to $500 million a year.”

As the Detroit Free Press demonstrated in a detailed report on Sunday, beyond the billions in revenue that represent “pass through” funding from the feds, the state budget contains about $20 billion of “restricted funds” that are earmarked in law for specific services – each of which has a vocal constituency.
A $400 million or $500 million package of cuts will not win a majority in the House and Senate. And, even if it did, that’s only about a third of the way toward the $1.3 billion a year needed for our roads and bridges.

After 20 years of neglect, it’s time for Lansing to stop looking for change under the couch cushions and to make a real investment – a commitment – to fix our crumbling infrastructure.