Lone Democrat Vote On Road Tax Increase On Trial For Attempted Murder

Way before the Todd Courser - Cindy Gamrat scandal broke in August of this year,

the top news story was that of Democrat Senator Virgil Smith.  

On May 10th of this year Virgil Smith got into a heated argument  with his ex-wife and shot at her.  

Virgil was arrested and is on trial for attempted murder, yet he still sits as a Senator in Lansing collecting a taxpayer paycheck.  

The shooting case does not look good for Virgil Smith as it appears undeniable that he shot at his ex-wife.  The case seems so open and shut, that according to news reports, Virgil Smith may claim insanity.

So we have either a Senator that tried to kill his wife as a sane person or as an insane person.  If he is insane does his votes hold legal merit?

What is even stranger is that his state office website has also been down since the shooting took place in early May but he is somehow still voting on key issues such as the road tax. 

The funny thing is Virgil Smith has been voting straight along with the Republicans, who hold the majority in the Senate.  Why hasn't Republican Senate Majority Leader Arlene Meekhof moved to expel Democrat Virgil Smith?  Has some sort of back scratching deals been put into place?  The votes seem to make it look so.

Rumor was Virgil Smith would get special treatment and perhaps he is.

Michigan House Passes Road Tax Increase And Removes Road Work Guarantees

A new plan to improve Michigan roads with higher fuel taxes

and vehicle registration fees was approved by the state

House.

The Republican-controlled House voted late Wednesday night along party lines after road-funding talks among legislative leaders and Gov. Rick Snyder broke down last week. The governor says he has "some concerns" with the new legislation.

The House bills would raise $1.2 billion a year to bring roads up to par, but not until the 2020-21 fiscal year.

The 19-cents-a-gallon state gasoline tax would be increased by 3.3 cents in 2018. The 15-cent diesel tax would rise by 7.3 cents in 2017.

License plate fees would increase by 40 percent starting in October 2016.  The increase will cost drivers an average of $100 more per vehicle.

And according to State Senator Patrick Colbeck he states

Patrick Colbeck

“Last night, the House voted on a series of bills to fix our roads. The bills feature a net $400M tax increase and reprioritization of $800M in existing revenue for a total increment of $1.2B for our roads. Gas taxes are increased by 3.3 cents/gallon. Diesel taxes are increased by 7.3 cents/gallon. Registration fees are increased for passenger vehicles and trucks. The bills remove provisions of SB 111 embedded within HB 4613 which would have enabled us to enforce warranty provisions. The suite of bills also featured enhanced Homestead Property Tax Credits to help citizens adversely impacted by the decrease in these credits back in 2011

Michigan House Votes To Raise Taxes To Fix Roads

They just don't get it do they?  After a resounding defeat of

Proposal 1 that would have raised taxes to fix Michigan Roads, the Michigan House today approved a plan to shift hundreds of millions of dollars from the state's general fund and make other changes, including raising taxes ,aimed at putting nearly $1.2 billion a year toward repairing the state's roads.

Most bills were approved primarily along party lines Wednesday in the Republican-controlled House.

Along with many other changes, the 12-bill package would earmark $442 million from the general fund for roads in the fiscal year starting Oct. 1.That number would increase to $792 million in the 2019 fiscal year.

The plan would raise the diesel tax to 19 cents from 15 cents to match the gas tax and index both taxes to inflation. Registration fees would be raised by $30 on certain hybrid vehicles and by $100 on electric vehicles

Gov Snyder and Senate Majority Leader Alran Meekhof Looking To Raise Taxes For Roads After Proposal 1 Failed

They just don't seem to get it in Lansing.  After a major ass-

Gov Snyder & Senate Majority Leader Meekhof
Looking To Raise Taxes For Roads

whooping with the defeat of the $1.2 billion tax increase proposal 1, our tax and spend legislators in Lansing are looking for another way to raise our taxes.

Governor Rick Snyder Business leaders don’t believe finding $1.2 billion in additional road funds without raising taxes is possible.  Why is it not possible?  With proper cuts to wasteful programs such as the Michigan Economic Development Corp (MEDC) which promotescronyism, killing the film subsidies that have done nothing to help Michigan as a whole and other wasteful programs that should generate a good chunk of the revenue needed.  

Some loud voices that have friends in the media are screaming if we get rid of the MEDC we won't have any more "Pure Michigan" commercials.  Has anyone verified the effectiveness of these commericals and why do they play frequently in our State?  Why doesn't the MEDC invest more to atract out of state tourism?

Also Michigan's unemployment rate has dropped from 14.1% to a "reported" 5.4%.  Where is this additional income tax revenue going?

The Michigan House should stick with a tough love approach and push through the cuts to unneeded programs such as the MEDC.

Here is where the trouble likes two-thirds of senators, mostly RINOs Republicans In Name Only, are term-limited and won’t face voters again in their current posts. The hope is that they’ll feel more free to vote for tax hikes.  What they don't realize is that they will be remembered for when they try to find another political hole to fill.

The Senate lead by disappointing Senate Majority (non) Leader Alran Meekhof is expected to back a plan already floated to raise the fuel tax by 5 cents a gallon each year for three years. That 15-cent hike will ultimately produce $750 million, with additional money found by bringing diesel fuel taxes in line with those on gasoline, and perhaps raising vehicle registration fees.  Michigan already has one of the highest gas taxes in the country, yet the worst roads.  How do you explain that?

It is likely to make us look like they are working in our favor, the senators will also offer up spending cuts  largely from the estimated $500 million MEDC budget, including the possible elimination of much or all of the $50 million film subsidy. The cuts are expected to be about half what the House passes.

State Rep: We Can Fix Michigan's Roads With Out Raising Taxes

Representative Peter Lucido (R-District 36) was on the Frank Beckmann program today on WJR-

Peter Lucido

760AM  and he stated that former Gov. Engler did  tap into the INTEREST in the Michigan Catastrophic Claims Association (MCCA) fund to give the taxpayers a rebate when the fund had $5 billion in its account which now has over $18 billion in its account.

Taking interest money will NOT in any way draw from the MCCA's continuously growing PRINCIPLE that it receives through the taxpayers vehicle insurance premium payments.

Representative Lucido’s idea would nix Lansing from coming up with laying additional tax burdens on Michiganders.

Michiganders pay more for insurance than the rest of the country and 2 times more than the national average.

via Peter J. Lucido - May 5 ---

"The citizens of Michigan have spoken very clearly: They want the roads fixed without raising taxes.

I am introducing a bill Wednesday in the House. This plan has been referred to previously as Plan B. Today I want you to realize it is now called Legislator Lucido’s Plan.

My plan is simply with no confusing parts tied to it. Today the plan could use the annual INTEREST ONLY from the Michigan Catastrophic Claims Association which is approximately one billion dollars annually. This is more than enough to get the roads, infrastructure, and transportation repaired and maintained WITHOUT HAVING TO TAX THE FAMILIES OF MICHIGAN.

What are we waiting for? We do not need gridlock and further delays to solve our road dilemmas. Do you agree? Please post your thoughts, share this post, call your legislator, and LET'S GET THESE ROADS FIXED TOGETHER!"

Is A Gas Tax Increase Really Necessary??

Michigan's road debate continues.

By Senator Patrick Colbeck

Proponents of tax increases have an extremely strong lobbying base. They have incessantly pushed a false narrative that our roads cannot be fixed without tax increases, despite our citizens already being subject to the fifth highest gas taxes in the country. After having served as vice chairman of the Senate Transportation Subcommittee on Appropriations for the past four years, I happen to have a different opinion.

Let me be clear. I want to fix the roads as much as anyone. The key difference is that I know that we can do so without having to dig deeper into the pockets of families struggling to make ends meet.

Here are some simple facts for Michiganians to consider. When I started my service in the Legislature four years ago, our state budget was $46.8 billion. The last budget that we enacted for FY2014-2015 was $53.1 billion. That is an increase of $6.3 billion — $1.1 billion of that went toward education; $840 million has already gone toward our roads. That leaves $4.3 billion unaccounted for in our list of budget priorities.

What are the odds that folks would find most, if not all, of the spending items associated with this $4.3 billion less important than fixing our roads? Would we raise taxes to pay for film incentives? Would we raise taxes to pay for other corporate incentive packages? The funds for these programs could be used for roads, yet we are being sold a narrative that we need a tax increase to pay for our roads. Why not push the tax increase discussion onto these programs instead?

Compound these observations with the fact that a significant portion of our transportation budget does not go towards fixing our roads. Did you know that 10 percent of the taxes collected under the most recent Senate-passed bill to increase gas taxes would go toward rail and mass-transit programs? Diverting funds to rail and mass transit will not fix a single pothole. Funny, I don't recall trains and busses being part of the "Just fix the roads" propaganda blitz. Do you?

Against this backdrop, I maintain that we do not get the bang for the road funding buck that we deserve in Michigan. In earlier op-eds, I cited findings from the 20th Annual Highway Report compiled by the Reason Foundation. It stated that Michigan spends 53 percent more per mile than the national average on our roads. Their latest study shows that Michigan still spends 27 percent more per mile than the national average and 7 percent more per lane-mile than the national average. Despite this, our road conditions have consistently ranked 40th or worse.

When I cite such figures, I am assaulted by proponents of increased taxes, who point out the influence of our winter climate on our poor road conditions.

Minnesota, not exactly a winter getaway for warm weather enthusiasts, spends 18 percent less per mile than the national average, yet has higher rural road quality.

Truck weights are also cited as a major contributor to the poor quality of our roads. I'm all for lowering truck weights. In fact, the Senate has considered legislation to do just that, but as an engineer I am bothered by the lack of fundamental engineering data on this topic. Despite years of inquiries, I have yet to find a specification that connects the dots between how long our roads should last under a given load profile and the road designs that we build. It is very difficult to analyze the impact of truck weights and longer life road designs without this data.

The good news is, we agree that we need to fix our roads. The bad news is that there are still too many folks who choose to make their point by misrepresenting the views of folks like me who do not believe that we need to raise taxes. Proponents of tax increases have poured significant time and money into making us believe that tax increases are the only "rational" solution to our road woes. Meanwhile, Michiganians pour out the fruits of their labor towards satisfying government's insatiable appetite for more of their hard-earned money.

Tax increases should always be the last option considered. All too often, though, they are the first. It is time we changed our priorities.

State Sen. Patrick Colbeck, R-Canton, represents the 7th District.