Blog of a discontent conforming noncomformist

Yes, spring has finally come to West Michigan. And with the coming of the warm weather comes that eternal reminder of just what kind of financial crisis our state is in, pot hole season. There have been many times in the last month that I have been reminded rather violently of this quite jarring phenomenon while driving my car to work. Yes, it seems that the state of Michigan just does not have the funds to keep more than sixty to seventy percent of the current road network usable to the public. The auto repair shops love this season.

But it seems that business has already proposed a solution to this problem. Their solution is to increase the state taxes consumers pay at the gasoline pump. If the extra funds generated actually would go toward improving our roads, personally I do not see a problem with using this approach. The only problem is that Americans always seem to think that they can always get something for the price of nothing.

When people complain about the supposed high price of gasoline, they forget where the taxes gained from those gasoline taxes are spent. These taxes where the state gets it's funds for the maintenance of our road system. Money just does not grow on trees.

There is a hidden cost to not paying the higher price of gasoline. That price is the cost of repairs to people's cars, repairs that can cost thousands of dollars. That would far outstrip the higher cost of gasoline. People just seem to not understand this painfully obvious fact and can't see beyond the cost of gasoline.

The question is, would this tax really be used to improve our roads? Or would it be used for government pork projects?