opinion

If we want better than Prop 1, we have to demand it

Self defeat is never pretty.

And if you're sitting around thinking that the spectacular death of Proposal 1 at the polls marks a defeat for anyone but us, the people of Michigan, then you're sorely deluded.

Yes, Prop 1 was complicated. Yes, it was the result of deal-making and compromise that married road funding with other, unrelated issues. And yes, if state legislators were just a little more high-minded, they could have produced their own, clean tax hike for roads without the straggler issues.

But who loses, other than us, now that this proposal is dead? Not the legislators who created it, most of whom left office in January because of term limits.

It's us. Because the roads are still god awful and there's no money to fix them, unless you want to sacrifice other government services like schools or local governments or parks or something.

We're back at Square One — fully four years after Gov. Rick Snyder first tried to rally the state around the desperate need to take better care of its infrastructure. And if you think there won't be deal-making or horse-trading involved in any other proposal that raises the billions we'll need for roads, well, that's just naive.

Four years. No action, because no political compromise is good enough for legislators or, apparently, for the voting public. The roads look like they've been shelled in some parts of the state. Sorry, folks, but that makes us pretty big losers.

And it's too easy, too lazy, to say this is entirely the fault of our elected representatives in Lansing. Despite the complicated nature of Proposal 1, I think it was reasonably understandable for anyone who took five or 10 minutes to sift through it. It was a proposed tax shift that would have had us pay slightly higher fuel taxes for roads, and a higher sales tax to replace the part of the fuel tax that used to go to schools and local governments. It would also have given a tax break back to low-income earners, and the whole thing would have generated more money for essential services.

But even if you thought that was too complicated, was that a good reason to vote it down? In favor of what? Nothing, which is what we're left with this morning. If anything, we owe it to ourselves to demand that legislators start over, today, and to give them some clear directions about what makes the most sense going forward.

For starters, we can get a fuel tax increase passed (it hasn't been touched in two decades) that would start generating the money we need to make crucial road repairs. By some estimates, nearly three quarters of our roads will be in poor condition within a few years, which is unacceptable and embarrassing. Tell your legislator today that we need a short-term fix to stop the deterioration.

But longer term, how about we start pressuring this new crop of legislators to think bigger-picture about our infrastructure needs? Gas taxes won't fund road repairs indefinitely, because fuel-efficient cars are using less and less. So we'll need better solutions.

And let's not be demure about the context for that discussion. We ought to talk about how tax policy has shifted so dramatically in this state — away from businesses, which were given a tax break in 2011 that by itself would generate enough money each year to fix roads, and toward individuals.

It's about priorities. If we want to invest in businesses with tax breaks, if we think that's the right way to grow the state's economy, we'll need to pay from our own pockets the money they're not contributing toward infrastructure or schools or local governments.

But rethinking that strategy ought to be on the table, too. And while we're at it, why not rethink the priority-setting that has continued business tax loopholes or subsidies for things like stadiums while the money for infrastructure and schools and local governments (read: police and fire) goes wanting?

Snyder has always maintained that we have to do all of those things — invest in business and development and take care of basics — all at the same time. But too much of his administration has been marked by success in taking care of business interests, but failure when it's time for everyone else.

Other states, like Minnesota, are having more success by investing in people first — schools, worker training, the social safety net — and in infrastructure, and asking more of business to help fuel long-term growth.

Too many people here laugh when that example gets raised — but with the defeat of Prop 1 and the dim prospects for a better road-fixing solution in the near future, should we be laughing at anyone else? Ever?

What we can't do is continue to make decisions that punish ourselves in the name of striking out at poorly thought-up initiatives, or at legislators. Prop 1 was a way forward — a difficult, deal-laden, complicated way forward, but that's the way the system works.

If we want to do better, if we want to force legislators to confront this issue in the short term and the future, in a more thoughtful way, it's up to us to say so. Otherwise, we'll suffer with exactly what we've got. And no one should be proud of that.

Stephen Henderson is editorial page editor for the Free Press. He is the host of "Detroit Today," which airs on weekdays on 101.9 FM (WDET) and "American Black Journal," which airs at 12:30 p.m. Sundays on Detroit Public Television. Follow Henderson on Twitter @ShendersonFreep, or contact him at 313-222-6659 or shenderson600@freepress.com.