A recent Bridge Magazine article reported on the poor reception Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s proposed 45-cent gas tax hike has received from the public.

Bridge’s headline for the piece was: “Yes, it takes billions to fix Michigan roads. No, taxpayers don’t want to pay.”

Included in the story was this quote from a prominent state Democratic politician:

“‘I’ve never seen a time when the public was willing to tax themselves for anything,’ Bob Emerson, former Democratic Senate Minority Leader, said at the roads forum. ‘I don’t think the public will ever accept that it’s needed.’”

Last year, 549 ongoing property tax millage levies had been approved by local voters, all of which dedicated some tax revenue to roads. They included 21 additional road tax millages approved by local voters just between 2015 and 2018, and many other approved previously.

Apparently voters are willing to tax themselves every year for a broad range of purposes, including road repair. For example, in 2018, taxpayers in local communities voted to approve 36 new school millages for an additional $1.5 billion in revenue.

The average student enrolled in the Detroit Public Schools Community District missed 32.73 days of school last year.

The figure comes from data the school district provided in response to a Freedom of Information Act request. The district reported 1,665,352 student absences during the 2017-18 school year. It also reported enrolling 50,875 students in that year.

The data gives more insight into the absenteeism problem in Detroit schools. The district reported previously to the state that in the 2017-18 year, 70.3% of its students were “chronically absent,” defined by the state Department of Education as missing at least 10% of possible school days.

This means that, based on the 181-day school year specified in the district’s teachers union contract, 70% of Detroit students missed at least 18 days of school, and many students missed far more days than that. The statewide average for chronically absent students was 20% in 2017-18.

Chrystal Wilson, spokeswoman for the Detroit Public Schools Community District, didn’t respond to an email seeking comment.

In 2010, Troy became one of the first cities in Michigan to pass a law that bans the use of a handheld cellphone while driving.

But the city has ramped up enforcement actions over the past two years, with the number of tickets issued annually for distracted driving more than quadrupling, from 65 to 2016 to 288 in 2018.

Troy police officials say they have made distracted driving an enforcement priority and regard the effort as a possible precursor to Michigan becoming a state where motorists can be ticketed for driving while talking on a handheld cellphone.

“There will be increasing efforts from the State level to address ‘distracted driving’ as research is compiled showing its negative impacts on safety, in conjunction with legislative efforts to make Michigan a ‘hands free’ law state,” said Troy Police Department Captain Robert Redmond in an email.

The city of Troy created a traffic safety unit that has made ticketing motorists for distracted driving a priority, according to Redmond. He said that the unit issued 240 citations for distracted driving from July 1, 2018, to April 1, 2019.

Troy police say they have increased their enforcement work, in part, because an organization called the Transportation Improvement Association has made it more of a priority, citing safety concerns. The TIA is a Troy-based private organization that studies transportation issues and is funded by government and corporate entities.

TIA says it is working to expand a multi-agency enforcement action undertaken in 2017 and 2018, called Operation Ghost Rider. That ticketing campaign involved the Michigan State Police, county sheriffs and local police departments placing law enforcement spotters in unmarked cars to look for instances of distracted driving. The spotters then radio ahead to patrol cars to pull over the alleged distracted driver.

No bills have been introduced in the current or recent legislative sessions to ban the use of handheld cellphones while driving. The last such bill was introduced in 2014, and it was to prohibit the practice while driving through a highway work zone. Before that, a bill in 2011 would have banned drivers age 17 or younger from handheld phone use. The bill that became Michigan’s ban on texting while driving originally applied also to talking on handheld phones, but it was amended before it was passed.