[malamute]

Originally Posted by Sparrow_temp

You have to separate the regions in MI. If you're talking Detroit, then there's probably not much difference than OH. If you're talking anywhere north of Cadillac, the differences in weather are considerable. The weather is a factor along with the sheer number of miles of road. We don't get the revenues from gas that a passthough state would get. Our roads are some of the oldest in the country. We don't construct them well enough to begin with to not need continuous maintenance. They get beat up by the heavy trucks more than other states. There's lots of reasons they're bad but not as many solutions. If you raise taxes for the roads, the money will simply be stolen by our politicians and spent for other things. Increasing the price of gas will also cause any products requiring transportation to cost more and make the state less competitive than its neighbors. Same goes for most other types of taxes. The real solution is to reallocate the existing budget to make roads a higher priority than things like the social welfare system.

Yes -- the pass-through traffic in other states is much higher. More taxes isn't the answer as long as the politicians will just keep diverting the money to all their pet causes.

Either roads are made a priority or they are not -- politicans feel the need to buy votes by spending the money collected for roads on other things.

And people have to realize that taxing people to death isn't the answer, and hard choices need to be made. More money "here" means less money "there".