By John Lindstrom
Publisher
Posted: April 18, 2019 3:25 PM

In what can surprise absolutely no one, a poll released this week showed 75 percent of those questioned disapproved of Governor Gretchen Whitmer's proposal to raise Michigan's fuel taxes by 45 cents to pay for a massive road improvement program.

Of course, 75 percent opposed it. Yeah, so?

Is the fact 75 percent oppose a tax increase enough of a reason not to raise taxes, whether the gas tax, the registration tax, the sales tax, beer tax, liquor tax, the oil and gas severance tax, the tobacco tax or pick a tax, to pay for what everyone agrees is desperately needed funding to fix Michigan's roads?

Nobody likes spending money, even for things critically needed. Everyone likes to shop, everyone likes to acquire the shiny new thingawhackawoo, but nobody likes to spend. It's one reason why shopping with credit cards is so attractive: Look, I bought the fully-loaded 2019 Willywillyyowwow and no cash, no filthy lucre, no coin of the realm, no legal tender actually vacated my wallet, thanks to my Giantdebtcard!

The power of free is astonishing. Add the adjective to anything and it instantly makes the item more desirable than anything else that could be imagined. An economist once ran an experiment one Halloween where he gave kids the option of a tiny snack-sized candy bar, say a Snickers, for free or spend one penny and get a Babe Ruth Louisville Slugger-sized Snickers. Yeah, virtually none of the kids coughed up a penny.

Along with not wanting to spend, there also remains an illusion that sufficient money is already hidden away in the state. In looking at Michigan's sorry roads, a student wrote recently in Hillsdale's student paper the state should take money from someplace else to finance improvements. The student didn't deny the roads needed fixing, just take the loot from someplace else. Where the student wanted the state to take the money from – university budgets, prisons, free lunches for poor kids, the State Police – was not mentioned. Of course, when people say take the money from someplace else, they never suggest where that somewhere else should be.

Still fixing roads must be paid for. It is uncontested there is not enough money now to pay for a sufficient road repair plan. Nor is it uncontested the public wants the roads fixed.

This raises a basic question in essential governing: There is a clear need for a service, there is an equally clear public desire for the service, and there is an equally clear opposition to paying for the needed, wanted service, what then do policymakers do?

Perhaps the question needs to be rephrased: How does the public wish to suffer? Would it rather not spend money on roads, but travel on roads that rival Afghanistan quality? Or spend money and then zip down well-maintained roads to yell at their public officials about high taxes?