Michigan Residents: Whitmer Did Not Fix The D@mn Roads

Michigan residents say Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has failed to keep her campaign promise to fix the state’s roads, according to a recent poll done by EPIC-MRA.

“It is a near unanimous opinion that Michigan roads and bridges are in terrible condition, with 93% offering a negative rating of just fair (28%) or poor (65%), and only 6% offering a positive rating,” EPIC-MRA stated in a press release. The poll was conducted May 11-17 and has a margin of error of four percentage points.

The condition of state’s trunkline roads, which consists of state highways, federal highways and interstates, has seen a slight improvement from 2010-11 to 2020-21, according to the report of the state Transportation Asset Management Council that evaluates roads.

The portion of highways in “good” condition has increased from 19% to 25% over that 10-year span and the share of roads in “bad” condition have decreased from 34% to 33%.

Michigan spent $2.0 billon on roads in 2011. In 2019, when Whitmer took office, the state boosted spending on roads to $3.6 billion. About 38% of that increase in funding came from a tax hike on fuel and increased vehicle registration fees, enacted in 2015.

In 2019 Whitmer proposed a road improvement plan that consisted of a 45-cent per gallon increase in the fuel tax, which would have collected an additional $2.5 billion a year in revenue. But when she submitted an executive budget proposal that year, it allocated just $1.9 billion of the increased tax revenue to roads, with the remaining $600 million to be spent elsewhere.

AAA Michigan reports the cost of gas in Michigan on June 6 at $5.05 per gallon. Had the governor’s 45-cent increase become law, the figure would have been $5.62 a gallon. But no legislator, including her fellow Democrats, introduced a bill to enact the increase.

When the 45-cent proposal received no traction in the Legislature, Whitmer’s next plan was to borrow $3.5 billion for roads. A top-rated municipal bond of 20 years is currently paying interest of about 3%. The cost of debt depends on its timing and structure. If the state were to borrow $3.5 billion all at once at current rates, the interest payments over 20 years would be $1.15 billion.

The poll was commissioned by the Michigan Infrastructure and Transportation Association, an industry trade group of companies engaged in public works projects, including road construction.