Essay: Do We Want Bad Roads? - 2.17.10

Michigan roads are in bad shape -- and the federal government wants to give us $2 billion to fix them. But Michigan Radio’s Jack Lessenberry says there’s a real threat we’ll lose that money.

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You probably know that Michigan’s state bird is the robin, but you could argue that the real symbol of our state is the orange barrel. We really have two major seasons: winter, and road construction.

Nobody likes being held up by a construction zone. But there is one thing worse than being inconvenienced by road repairs. It is living in a state that lacks the money to make them. If you have ever had a tire destroyed or an axle broken by a pothole the size of an elephant’s head, you know what I am talking about.

And if present trends continue, the roads are going to start getting far worse, because Michigan is going to miss out on a whole lot of federal funding.

Governor Granholm talked about this in her state of the state speech. Washington is offering us an enormous deal. To quote the governor, “The federal government will give us $2 billion over the next four years if we can come up with a 20 percent match in state funds. That's like an 80-percent-off coupon.” How can we turn that down?

By the way, those funds would not only help fix our crumbling roads, but would create, the governor said, 10,000 construction jobs each year. Yet, incredibly, right now we stand to lose that money, because Michigan may not be able to come up with the matching funds, according to the Michigan Department of Transportation.

Kirk Steudle, the department director, told a legislative subcommittee yesterday, “We as a country and we as a state are significantly underfunding our infrastructure.“ What’s the bottom line? Today, more than 90 percent of Michigan’s roads are rated as being in good condition, although that might seem like an exaggeration. According to the transportation director, if we lose the federal funding, in ten years only 45 percent of Michigan roads will be in good condition. Perhaps our next car should be a Sherman tank.

This is something that should be relatively easy to address, politically and otherwise. Polls have consistently shown that even voters who oppose tax increases for any other reason are often open to spending money to fix our roads. Traditionally, the matching funds have been provided by money the state gets from the gas tax and new vehicle registration fees. Revenues from both are down, and projections say that next year, we will fall about $84 million dollars short of what we need to get the matching funds. Losing that money would be insane.

Fortunately, State Representative Dick Ball, a Republican from Laingsburg, is sane. “No one likes to have their taxes raised, but sometimes there isn’t much alternative,” he said. Accordingly, he and his colleague Pam Byrnes, a Democrat from Chelsea, have introduced bills to raise the gas tax by four cents a gallon and diesel fuel by six cents, now, and again in three years. Ball added sensibly that we can either pay a little now, or a lot more later.

But unless this gets public attention, these bills could just quietly die -- and our roads and economy with them. As the governor put it: “Common-sense dictates that we shouldn't leave money on the table in Washington for roads and infrastructure that would create jobs in Michigan.” Now, the legislature needs to make common sense a road repair reality.

Comments

[Nathan F, Lansing]

Well said, people do not realize how much road repairs cost. For just a drainage repair and mill and fill, it can cost upwards of $400,000 per lane mile. So just imagine if this is a 6 lane boulevard, the price can add up quickly.

[Nathan F, Lansing]

Man, I was hoping to get a response of some sort from the paid blogger oh well.