Are your roads better than they were four years ago? If you’re one of the 4.5 million people in Metro Detroit, probably not.

When Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is asked, this summer and fall, what became of her promise to Fix the Damn Roads, her answer will come easy: The Republicans in the Legislature didn’t let me do it.

So it is curious that in Whitmer’s first campaign commercial of 2022, four months ahead of the Nov. 8 election, the governor cites “No New Taxes” among her victories.

After taking office in January 2019, Whitmer soon proposed a phased-in of a $45-cent per gallon increase in Michigan’s gas tax, to fund road repairs. The Legislature balked, and no deal was reached. No road solution was found in the years since.

During the 2018 campaign for governor, Whitmer called it “ridiculous” when Republican contender Bill Schuette said she would push for a 20-cent hike in the gas tax. Once elected, Whitmer sought a tax hike twice as large.

Now, Whitmer has flipped that failure into a win. And due to Whitmer’s vetoes of recent legislative efforts to cut taxes, including one to suspend Michigan’s gas tax, Republicans can’t say they’ve secured a tax cut, either.

It’s good politics — so long as nobody asks about those Damn Roads.

When that question comes, Whitmer will have to decide whether her inability to pass her road-funding plan was a bug or a feature of her time in office. It cannot be both.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer recently cited an additional 25,000 jobs in the auto sector as evidence of her success and of a growing economy.

But a Michigan Capitol Confidential fact-check showed Whitmer misrepresented that number by failing to account for job losses. The Detroit Free Press found that Whitmer was counting job announcements as jobs.

Whitmer tweeted another misrepresentation on June 22, this time as it related to the state budget. Whitmer wrote from her personal account: “We’re boosting Michigan’s economy — turning a projected $3 billion deficit into a $7 billion surplus. I will work with anyone to keep our economy thriving.”

The governor deserves neither blame nor credit for the economic trends that drove both the anticipated deficit and the surplus that appeared.

Official budget projections made in May 2020 said there would be a sharp decline in collections due to COVID-19 and its related restrictions, but the revenue downturn never happened. General and School Aid Fund revenue was projected to be $22.5 billion in the 2020-21 fiscal year, down from a previous estimate of $25.5 billion. But the state ended up collecting $29.0 billion in those two funds that year.

Administrators ignored an infusion of federal cash that would have closed the phantom deficit more than three times. By spring 2020, Congress had allocated $9.7 billion in extra disbursements for Michigan.