opinion

Profiles in cowardice: Patterson, Hackel team up to kill regional transit

L. Brooks Patterson called it the stupidest thing John Engler had ever done.

It was New Year's Day 2003, and Engler had just stepped down after three eventful terms as Michigan's governor. But even as his Democratic successor was being sworn in, word began circulating that, in one of his last official acts, Engler had vetoed legislation that would have created southeast Michigan's first regional transit authority.

Patterson, who'd spent more than a year lobbying state lawmakers to pass the landmark measure, was furious.

"This is really an outrage!" the Oakland County Executive fumed. "I've been getting pressure for close to three years to participate in a regional transit system and assigned one of my top guys for the last 18 months to this. We got our act together — and this is the payback we get?"

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Patterson had every right to feel betrayed. The transit veto was a petulant parting shot from a governor miffed at the Legislature's refusal to back his pet initiative to open 15 new charter high schools in Detroit. In a churlish veto message, Engler said a region that couldn't get its act together on public education didn't deserve state support for regional transit.

Engler got his wish to play the spoiler: It would be a decade before a new state Legislature and a new Republican governor mustered the votes to resurrect the regional transit authority needed to attract federal transit dollars to metro Detroit.

Blind-sided

Flash forward 15 years, and it's Patterson's turn to be the kid who brings the game to a screeching halt by picking up his ball and going home.

He did that Tuesday night in a State of the County address that all but scuttled the latest initiative to fund the regional transit system Gov. Rick Snyder signed into law five years ago.

The legislation Snyder signed effectively forbids the regional transit authority from taking action unless Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties share financial responsibility for its operation and expansion. Oakland voters rejected a proposal to authorize a local property millage for transit in November 2016 by a 1% margin, and the three county executives have been negotiating with Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan to put another version before voters this November.

But in his address Wednesday night, Patterson said he'd oppose putting any new millage proposal before voters in Oakland County communities that have opted out of the existing SMART bus service. The county's nine opt-out communities include Novi, Waterford, Lake Angelus, Rochester, Rochester Hills, Bloomfield Hills, Sylvan Lake, Orchard Lake and Keego Harbor.

Patterson's remarks blind-sided Duggan and Wayne County Executive Warren Evans, who sounded as disappointed Thursday as Patterson was by Engler's veto 15 years ago.

"Just three weeks ago, Warren Evans and I sat in Patterson’s office when he gave us his word he would work in good faith to try to develop a [new millage proposal] in time for the 2018 ballot." Duggan said in a statement. "That’s why it was so surprising to hear him last night declare he would “never betray” his Oakland County communities by pursuing such a plan."

But Macomb County Executive Mark Hackel, whose constituents overwhelming rejected the 2016 millage proposal, welcomed Patterson's opposition.

"Nobody is coming to me and saying, 'Let's fix regional transit,' " Hackel told the Free Press' reporter Bill Laitner. They come to me and say, 'Let's fix the roads.' "

A tragic reversal

Hackel is the opposite of a visionary; he has never demonstrated any enthusiasm for transit, joining a long procession of Macomb County politicians from both parties who regard region-wide initiatives involving Detroit with suspicion. His reluctance to acknowledge that crumbling roads and inadequate mass transit are symptoms of the same infrastructure crisis is both a signal failure of leadership and par for the course.

But Patterson's abdication is more surprising, and more tragic. Although he has always been skeptical of mass transit, his long career has been punctuated by numerous examples of long-range, proactive initiative. His State of the County address was studded with references to augmented reality and artificial intelligence. He correctly attributed Oakland's prosperity to his administration's ability "to see what is over the horizon and then make solid plans to manage changes on the way."

Patterson is no dummy. He knows the talented college graduates Oakland County needs to sustain its growth are rejecting automobiles in favor of public transit and ride-sharing services. He knows that the two are interdependent. And he surely understands that starving regional transit will condemn his county and its neighbors to second-class status in the 21st Century economy.

So the shiv Patterson put in regional transit this week is a sign of resignation, not myopia. It signals that the aging Oakland County executive no longer has the fight to take on the backward-looking tax slashers who are dragging his own party to the obsolescent right, and who are determined to resist the kind of public investments southeast Michigan needs to compete in a post-Amazon world.

Patterson didn't betray mass transit out of spite; he just got tired of being a leader. The whole region will bear the cost of his surrender.

Brian Dickerson is the Free Press' Editorial Page Editor. Contact him at bdickerson@freepress.com.