Election Day, the campaign for Proposal 1 has taken a strange turn that may
backfire on those who support the road funding tax plan.
Cynical anti-Prop 1 voters
are keeping an eye out for road-related items that seem to be timed to coincide
with the upcoming May 5 vote. In Macomb County, barriers suddenly appeared last
Friday on 27 Mile Road indicating that the bridge west of Romeo Plank is no longer safe and the road is closed.
the county Department of Roads was engaged in a political ploy, put up his own
sign. In orange spray paint, the plywood sign reads: “NICE TRY
WE’RE STILL VOTING NO”.
County the newest effort to drum up support for the Prop 1 sales tax hike is a school
bus with a prop – a concrete piece of a broken bridge abutment — smashed through the windshield.
The latest poster child in
the campaign for safer roads and bridges is basically a traveling re-enactment
of what would have been a horrible tragedy that likely would have killed the
bus driver and possibly many of the kids on board.
ballot proposal?
Monday morning the bus was parked on the main thoroughfare of downtown
Flint, the first stop on the statewide, “Getting Schooled in
Infrastructure” tour by representatives of Laborers’ International Union
of North America and other Proposal 1 supporters.
hour bid to generate support, one survey shows that turnout may be as low as 20
percent next Tuesday.
On one side, we have voters
who are fed up with the pothole-filled roads but are skeptical of the ballot
proposal’s complexities. The phrase you hear often is, “Hold your nose and vote
‘yes.’” That’s hardly the type of atmosphere that will encourage people to go
to the polls.
On the other side, we’ve
witnessed a grassroots anti-tax effort to defeat Prop 1, which would raise the
sales tax from 6 percent to 7 percent. These voters seem far more energized and eager
to cast a ballot. In some areas of the state the opponents are apparently organizing
a get-out-the-vote effort and they will be campaigning at the polls,
encouraging a “no” vote.
prediction would be that the proposal loses by landslide proportions, perhaps
even a 3-1 margin.
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| Saginaw County Sheriff William Federspiel and union construction workers are all smiles as they pose with the newest pro-Proposal 1 prop – a school bus crushed by a piece of bridge concrete. MLive photo |
