The Detroit Free Press Editorial Board

If you like your potholes, you can keep them.

For at least another season, and that's if we're lucky.

After nearly a year of wrangling over a way to raise more money for Michigan's roads, the Legislature has finally come to something like consensus around a deal that should ultimately make for smoother rides, but also fails spectacularly to demonstrate any leadership.

Difficulty is not an excuse for inaction. And to admit paralysis by indecision is churlish.

That's exactly what lawmakers did by kicking the decision about how to fund new roads to voters, who'll cast ballots in spring of 2015 to do what their elected representatives lacked the courage to accomplish.

The roads deal on parade Thursday would rely largely on a 1%-increase to the state sales tax, currently 6%, which must be approved by voters next May — assuming the ballyhooed compromises pass both chambers today by a two-thirds vote.

Lawmakers had other options that could have been enacted with no delay. They couldn't come to agreement, so instead, we wait. And our roads continue to deteriorate.

Worse, there's no fallback. If Michiganders vote the tax increase down, lawmakers must start from scratch.

It's a stunning abdication of legislative leadership. Because the tax increase is framed as a ballot measure, it cuts Gov. Rick Snyder out of the loop entirely. Snyder, it's worth noting, has been one of few responsible Republican grown-ups in the room during these negotiations.

Fixing our roads shouldn't have been a hard sell, especially in a lame-duck session in which this should have been a priority. But that's the final petty victory of outgoing Republican House Speaker Jase Bolger, who won by thinking smaller than everyone else. His proposal to pilfer road dollars from a tax that currently funds schools and local governments badly distorted the conversation, pushing the poles too far apart to come to a reasonable compromise.

That's a win for Bolger in the sense that he got some of what he wanted. But it's a loss for the people he represents, who needed him to think more grandly about what Michigan needs and deserves. The ovations he may be getting from a narrow-minded caucus do not drown out the cries for not only better roads, but better governance in Michigan.

Democrats, on the other hand, scored a few more high-minded wins in the road deal. They secured a restoration of the Earned Income Tax Credit, which benefits low-income, working Michiganders. And they managed to move the vote on roads late on Thursday's agenda, ensuring their conditional support could be withdrawn if right-wing Republican instincts run amok on other measures.

Bottom line: We still have a tax on fuel at a time when we're hoping to discourage its use, guaranteeing we'll reach this cliff again. The sales tax, though commensurate with other Midwestern states, is regressive, with an outsized impact on the state's poorest residents. And it could all fall apart in May, if residents vote it down.

It's a fitting end to this legislative session, surely one of the most troubling in recent memory. We know who won. But we also know who lost.