State Sen. Jack Brandenburg has launched an offensive intended to sink the new bridge to Canada – and, of course, he is tacitly taking shots at fellow Republicans in the legislative leadership and Gov. Snyder.
In a letter to his north Macomb constituents, Brandenburg, like many Macomb Republicans opposed to the proposed U.S.-Canada bridge slated for southwest Detroit, relies upon the simplest of arguments. Open more toll booths on the Canadian side of the Ambassador Bridge and the traffic delays will be solved.
The Harrison Township Republican wrote that the Canadians have about 30 toll booths for Ontario-bound traffic, but six have never opened and the other 24 are used on a part-time, rotating basis in each 24-hour period.
“The problem is Windsor’s problem, not ours,” the senator said.
He also cites the 42 percent drop in traffic on the Ambassador Bridge since 1999, which coincides with reduced vehicle volume in the Windsor-Detroit Tunnel and on the Blue Water Bridge in Port Huron.
Brandenburg refuses to believe that the exchange of $550 million in Canadian funds for the bridge project would translate into $2.2 billion of leveraged federal dollars from Washington.
And the senator advises against public-private partnerships, asserting that they always place the taxpayer at risk and irrefutably fly in the face of free market principles.
But it’s the Mackinac Bridge history supplied by the lawmaker that could most sway his constituents.
The bridge between the upper and lower peninsulas was sold to the public as a self-sustaining project, according to Brandenburg. Tolls were supposed to pay for all the bonds and interest.
“Well here are the facts,” Brandenburg says in his year end correspondence to the 11th District: “From 1969 through 1986, a total of $63 million of public money was paid to the Mackinac Bridge Authority to pay back principal and interest on the bonds.”
“As of Oct. 1, 2010, only $12 million has been repaid to the state. The guarantee that no taxpayer dollars were going to be used to finance the Mackinac Bridge was clearly broken.”
Brandenburg may be cherry-picking some of his facts – I don’t know, I have not dug into the details on the proposed bridge or Big Mac. But if the Mackinac Bridge, unveiled during thriving economic times for Michigan, was a financial disappointment, you have to wonder how viable a new border crossing will be at a time when Detroit and southeast Michigan are in such dire financial straits.
Chad, you admit " I don’t know, I have not dug into the details on the proposed bridge or Big Mac."
Well, if you haven't taken the time to look at the facts of how the financing of the Mackinaw bridge has worked out, maybe you should reserve judgement on the Gov. Snyder's proposed bridge.
I don't really know if presenting the financial facts really constitutes "launching an offensive to sink the bridge" as much as it is "playing defense to prevent the waste of taxpayers dollars" on an un-needed and un-affordable project.