"Once again, our elected officials took the safe way out, relying on big money ad campaigns and the voters to come up with a solution that they could have crafted after talking about this problem for more than two years.
Over 24 months of discussions and it took a lame duck legislative session to conclude that voters should decide whether to tax themselves?
How brave! How noble! How spineless!
Instead of looking for ways to cut spending — they could have started with the continuing wasteful film subsidies — these legislators decided to play Santa Claus exactly one week before Christmas.
Our gallant men and women in Lansing figured out a way to give a slice of the pie to all the deep pocketed, big spending groups with an interest in the road plan.
Gov. Rick Snyder talked about checking off boxes during his press conference Thursday. In that spirit, let’s check some ourselves.
■$1.2 billion for road construction and repairs — check — which means road builders will join the Michigan Chamber of Commerce in financing an expensive advertising campaign to urge a yes vote on raising the state sales tax in May.
■$100 million for rail and public transportation projects will similarly draw advertising revenue support from those with a stake in the projects — check.
■An additional $300 million for schools gets the backing of the Michigan Education Association because about 85 percent of that money goes into employee payroll — check.
All of these observations are not intended to judge the merits of the spending to fix our roads.
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