MDOT is running out of money.  The problem is simple, but the cause necessitates a trip to the stratosphere to see the whole problem.  Our state built too many roads, bridges, highways, schools, and suburbs during the boom years and now we are in the middle of a big post-industrial hangover.  The Great Michigan Diaspora exacerbates this problem, leaving less and less taxpayers to pay for maintaining the same roads, bridges, and services we’ve all become accustomed to.

Funding for transportation comes from several places, including car registration fees and the gas tax.  Excluding the cash-for-clunkers burst, Michiganders are driving less and buying fewer cars, especially as our population slowly wears away.

State funding for transportation is used to match federal funds.  $1 of Michigan money can call back between $1 and $9 of federal ags tax revenues.   In 2010, a $1.1 bln transportation budget year, our $110 million shortfall means Michigan will lose out on over $570 million dollars of federal funding!

The sad thing is, this is still our money.  The federal gas tax that we pay funds the state match funding.  Without match money from the us, our federal gas tax contributions will continue to flow to places like New York and L.A., or sprawlville places like Atlanta.  We already get 80 cents on the dollar for our federal taxes, are we going to let this get worse?

Luckily there’s a solution to this ongoing problem… well, 12 solutions.  Back to the clouds: A few years ago, the governor commissioned a task force called the “Transportation Funding Task Force“, or TF2.  The task force members included legislators, the head of the Michigan Chamber of Commerce, labor unions, transportation professionals, and transit professionals.  They looked at ways to improve the transportation system, and their report was pretty grim.  They found the “cost of doing nothing” is greater than the cost of their 12 recommendations, which includes cutting inefficient programs, raising gas and registration taxes, et cetera.  Raising new revenue for transportation investment, while unpopular on the face, really makes sense when you begin to think about it.

Those of us who paid attention in our Econ 201 class with Charlie Ballard will remember that a Pigouvian Tax is:  a tax levied on a market activity if the market outcome has a negative externality whose cost is not borne by the producer, but by the public.  For those of us who didn’t pay attention: It’s a tax on bad things so we use them less.  Increasing the gas tax, as proposed by the business and labor-supported TF2 report, will help give us reason to cut our dependence on foreign oil, and it will fund the improvements and transit needed to eliminate that dependence.

I know you’re probably really ticked to read that I support a gas tax, but let’s be real here – if we don’t take care of our roads and pay for their maintenance, what are we going to drive on?  If I have to replace another tire and rim like I did this spring when my car nailed a pothole (more like Grand Canyon), a few pennies on the gallon is a LOT cheaper.  Especially when I travel to places like Indiana, where with a history of conservative state government they are still able to adequately fund transportation; or Ohio, with user-fees/tolls on the I-80/90, I notice just how bad our roads are and how far behind we have become.  We are not talking about an exorbitant amount of new funding here, and all of the transportation funding invested in Michigan stays in Michigan.  When non-essential roads get too expensive to maintain, we start hearing a word that hasn’t quite made it into Webster’s yet: Gravelize.  Take a guess what that means.  We keep talking about bringing Michigan into the new 21st-century economy, how are we going to do that with 19th-century roads?

Now that we’ve had that nice trip through the stratosphere, I think you can guess the reason why MLK was only mowed 3 times this year.  MDOT is getting creative; they are cutting all but the most essential services.  Any new cuts will mean significant maintenance issues for our aging transportation system.  Without action from our legislature, and support from citizens, our public infrastructure is going to not-so-slowly whither away.  While higher taxes may not attract new businesses, neither will crumbling roads, bridges, and highways.  Throw your 2-cents in and help rebuild Michigan.