“So much for running a government like a business. You can keep the $100 your tax cut will give me, if you take responsibility for your conduct and reimburse me what your potholes have cost me.”
That’s the message Ann Arbor attorney John Minnock had for Gov. Rick Snyder this week, as reported by the Detroit Free Press. He wasn’t alone. Plenty of citizens from across the political spectrum told the Freep how fed up they are with Michigan’s roads, which have long been terrible after years of neglect. A harsh winter and epic flooding have made some of the state’s major thoroughfares look like the lunar landscape. Washtenaw County even closed one of its main roads indefinitely because it’s been swallowed up by potholes, which is probably a sign of things to come.
Minnock was also referring to the bill that Snyder recently signed that restored the personal exemption in Michigan, which was wiped out by President Trump’s tax plan last year. Republicans lopped on an increase over time so they could sell it as a tax cut in an election year.
But they rejected Democrats’ attempt to fix roads with $275 million this year from the state’s Rainy Day Fund.
“It’s raining in Michigan — literally, at times, raining concrete,” declared Sen. Curtis Hertel Jr. (D-East Lansing), which is a pretty pithy quote.
Republicans agreed to spend an extra $175 million for emergency road repairs — $100 million less than the Dems’ proposal. But let’s be honest. That’s just a drop in the bucket. And drivers in Michigan know that.
