Former Senate Majority Leader Randy Richardville over the
weekend let loose with his frustrations over the current Legislature’s lack of
action on fixing the state’s roads.
Appearing on Public Television’s “Off The Record,”
Richardville, a Monroe Republican, said that the failure to solve the road
funding problem is “past the embarrassment stage” – a status for which he
accepted some blame.
more than anyone in the Capitol will admit, he suggested. The $1.2 billion target
figure for fixing the situation is already out of date, as it simply
represented the additional annual funding to compensate for revenue losses to
inflation from 1997 – the last time the gas tax was increased – to 2012.
He said the true cost to repair the roads and bridges is
probably now at $2 billion. In other words, the House plan that initially
generates just $400 million 2016-17 as it’s slowly phased in would have little
impact.
put the issue at the top of his agenda a few years ago reveals a key flaw in
Michigan’s legislative process, Richardville said.
The Senate leader from 2011-14 who was term-limited last
year, Richardville blasted legislators past and present for letting
transportation funding slip into the ditch repeatedly since the gas tax was
last raised.
one bite at the apple.’ Well, screw that. An apple’s got more than one bite. Go
after it again if it needs to be gone after, especially in the era of term
limits.
“… Roads should be revisited every several years, not 15,
17 years when the problem is too big to tackle. That’s really what the problem
is here.”
problem, added Richardville, who also served in the House, that only a petition
drive and ballot proposal will fix things in a structural way that has
long-term stability.
“I don’t know any other way at this point … I’d help pay
for it, just to get the thing done.”
So what's his solution besides a tax increase? I don't see him nor any of the other Lansing types proposing anything that fundamentally shakes up the way Michigan does infrastructure. For example, as best I understand it, those with hybrid and increasing efficient traditional fuel cars pay next to nothing compared to the rest of us. Doesn't make sense. Those who drive should pay the most.