Tuesday, May 05, 2015

A Scoop of Pot Hole Drizzled With Tax Dollars

A Scoop of Pot Hole Drizzled With Tax Dollars - WSJ
Hillsdale, Mich.
...The Michigan Transportation Asset Management Council, a state agency, claims that 38% of the state’s roads are in “poor” condition and projects that in a decade this figure will jump to 53%.
...All told, the measure would generate more than $2 billion in revenue a year.
Yet the amount that would go to transportation—mostly roads and bridges, but also bike paths, light rail and “streetscape” projects that aim to improve the look of downtown areas—is only about $1.2 billion.
The rest would fuel new spending on public education and local government, as well as an expansion of the state’s earned-income tax credit.
In other words, taxpayers will get less than $1.2 billion in roadwork for the price of more than $2 billion.
...Since Mr. Snyder took office in 2011, the state’s budget has grown 14%, to a projected $30 billion next year from $26.3 billion, according to the state’s Senate Fiscal Agency.
This is well above inflation and outpaces Michigan’s tiny population growth.
Despite these increases, lawmakers have skimped on basic infrastructure, even though Michigan roads must endure a climate of freezing and thawing that ravages asphalt.
The state spends only $126 per capita on roads, according to a Detroit Free Press analysis—less than any other state in the country and much less than neighboring Indiana ($339), Ohio ($258) and Wisconsin ($295)...
Mr. Miller is director of the Dow Journalism Program at Hillsdale College and national correspondent for National Review.

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