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Road Disrepair Becomes A GOP Election Issue Up North

Peter Payette

Republican lawmakers announced a proposal Thursday to spend more money on Michigan’s roads and bridges.

Everybody agrees Michigan’s roads are in horrendous shape, but the full cost of tackling the problem is large, in the billions of dollars. Addressing such an expensive problem is difficult, especially in an election year.

To see the problem firsthand, drive down Doerr Road in Antrim County. Drive in the middle because the edges are crumbling away.

The speed limit is 55 mph, but Burt Thompson slows down to 15 mph when he hits a rough stretch and rumbles over what is almost entirely patches and potholes.

Thompson runs Antrim County’s Road Commission and says there is not much they can do about Doerr Road.

“We may have to turn it back to gravel,” he says.

Thompson’s never turned a paved road back to gravel, not in almost 20 years managing Antrim County’s roads.

About 60 miles of road here are in poor condition, but none are scheduled for reconstruction at the moment. There’s no money.

Thompson is on the board of the County Road Association of Michigan. He says there won’t be enough money without a tax increase.

“The legislature has not been willing to increase taxes, at least not the extent needed for transportation,” he says. “It’s not a popular political issue in Lansing.”

The Governor says Michigan needs to spend at least $1.2 billion more on roads every year. Another estimate puts the needed increase at twice that amount.

The proposal made by House Republicans this week would increase road spending by as much as half a billion dollars. Most of that would come from other parts of the budget and through efficiencies.

Traverse City Republican Wayne Schmidt chairs the transportation committee in the Michigan House of Representatives. Schmidt recognizes there is not a lot of appetite for new taxes so lawmakers are stretching the road dollars they have.

But he says they can only stretch them so far.

“You still need a certain amount of people to take care of business,” he says. “We’re getting down. We continue to cut.”

Roads are mainly funded by a tax you pay when you buy gasoline. It is a flat rate per gallon that hasn’t changed since 1997.

Cars use less gas these days but the price of maintaining roads has gone up in every way from labor to asphalt. The road budget is caught in a widening gap.

“That’s the conundrum that we face,” says Schmidt.

Roads in an election year

Another conundrum Wayne Schmidt faces is he is trying to get elected to the Michigan Senate. An election year is not the best time for a GOP candidate to discuss new fees and taxes, even for services as essential as roads.

His opponent in the primary, State Representative Greg MacMaster, is making road funding a campaign issue. MacMaster lives in Antrim County and recently sent out an email touting his plans to fix Michigan roads “WITHOUT RAISING TAXES.” 

MacMaster thinks there is still plenty of waste in Michigan’s budget, and he says Lansing needs to stop subsidizing Detroit.

“They got them into that mess,” he says. “They need to get themselves out.”

MacMaster also suggests tapping the Natural Resources Trust Fund.

That money is protected by the state constitution and can only be used to improve parks and to buy more public land. MacMaster wants to rethink that how we spend those dollars since they are made from royalty payments on oil and gas.

“Trucks are delivering it over the open roads and those are starting to deteriorate,” he says.

More state money for roads might not improve the situation for northern Michigan as much as it could. Two years ago, the governor proposed a new funding formula for roads, one that would favor counties with more people and busier roads.

That discussion died, but Burt Thompson in Antrim County doesn’t expect the issue to go away. If there is more money at stake, he expects a renewed push for more of it to go to urban roads.

Peter Payette is the Executive Director of Interlochen Public Radio.