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| Senator Patrick Colbeck |
On May 5th, voters will be asked to consider a ballot
proposal that would seek to fix our roads by increasing our taxes. Voters have been told that there are no other
viable alternatives. After much
investigation, I believe that it is important that voters understand that there
are indeed alternatives that merit further consideration.
Over the past four years, I served as Vice Chair of the
Senate Transportation Subcommittee on Appropriations. During this period, I have spent significant
time with constituents and other legislators studying the serious problem of
the deteriorating condition of our roads and bridges inur state. Furthermore, I
have examined how Michigan’s road investments and road quality compare to other
states. As a result of these efforts, I
have assembled no less than four viable options that would allow us to fix our
roads without raising taxes.
The first of these options is a blast from the past commonly
The second of these options is to simply prioritize the
spending of existing funds. This option
features freezing general fund budgets with projected increases except for K-12
education, allocating 100% of “1-Time” spending to roads, using the Budget
Stabilization Fund to “stabilize the budget”, and open up several restricted
funds to allow usage of their fund balances to offset road maintenance
costs. This option would add $669M to
our road budget in the first year.
The third of these options is to reduce our expenses. These expense reduction opportunities can be
broken down into MDOT cost reductions, non-MDOT government cost reductions, and
the removal of Federal Regulations that drive the cost of road
construction. This option would not only
address the quality of our road construction as a means of reducing total
lifecycle costs; it would also address the quality of our government
operations. This option would yield at
least another $53M to our road budget in the first year.
The last of these options is simply an “all of the above”
option. All told, we have the
opportunity to put $869M towards fixing our roads in year one and apply over
$1.4B towards maintaining our roads for each subsequent year.
I have focused on first year spending because, as a public
safety issue, I believe that we need to demonstrate that we are committed to
fixing the roads as quickly as possible.
The options outlined above would enable us to put $869M towards fixing
the roads in the first year WITHOUT raising taxes. For comparison purposes, Ballot Proposal 15-1
would only put $434M towards the roads in year one…and that is after increasing
the taxes that you pay by $1.7B. In
other words, the sum total of these options improve the safety of our roads
more than twice as fast as the Ballot Proposal…and it does so without any tax
increases.
As a fellow taxpayer, I believe that these options deserve
more consideration than the current dismissive commentary would indicate. I encourage you to take time to explore these
four alternatives. There may be some who
are opposed to these alternatives simply because they don’t believe that there
are the votes needed to pass them. As
engaged citizens, it is our duty to keep pressing and ask “why”. Why are film credits a higher priority than
roads? Why are we putting money away
into restricted funds that sustain lower priority programs at the expense of
putting more resources towards road construction? Why don’t we build roads that last longer?
It is important for us all to realize that there are indeed
ways to fix our roads without taking more money out of your wallets. More information on these options is
available in the Solution Center at MorninginMichigan.com.
Patrick Colbeck
State Senator, 7th District
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