Proposal 1 Road Funding by Larry Leidline

[Tim Lintz]

My opinion on the Proposal 1 Road Funding is that it is not a road funding proposal and does not even meet the criteria as a well thought out proposal. It is up for vote because Lansing could not agree on funding and left it up to the voters. Further, it represents a failure of the Governor and Legislature to do the job they were elected to do. Only a slight majority of the $2 Billion it raises goes to road funding, parts of this proposal go to increased educational funding, something called local budget stabilization and earned income credit. Of the road funding, $815,000 in funds the first years go to debt retirement not building roads. 

What Michigan voters want was for the ever increasing state budget to be utilized to fix roads and only roads, something the Granholm and Snyder administrations have not done. Even a significant number of County Republican Parties including Lapeer oppose this proposal against a sitting Governor. They recognize the voters simply don’t want this hodge podge of a bill, many likely can’t understand how the Legislature could not provide a workable solution within the budget process. The way it works, Governor Snyder put pressure on Legislative leaders once they were unable to resolve funding as a budget issue.  It took some string pulling and flip flopping to put this up as a proposal. Don’t forget our Senator Green voted for this proposal while former Senator Pavlov voted against it.

 Most people feel that we do not need to increase taxes by $2 Billion as we have some of the highest road tax in the nation. Many Michigan residents simply cannot afford higher taxes. New road funding legislation has been introduced in the State House including reductions to certain other departments pending the Proposal 1 vote. This Proposal deserves a no vote and Lansing needs to go back to work to solve the road funding issue without burdening Michigan taxpayers.