Meanwhile to our South…

One of the things I hear, all of the time, is that you sure know when you have gone from Michigan into Ohio because the quality of the roads improves a whole lot. And I think that’s a true statement. But why?

Well, last week, the Ohio House of Representatives passed a two-year, $7 billion transportation spending bill, for 2016 and 2017. That is a whole lot more money than, we in Michigan, will be spending on transportation in the next two years. But, that is not the amazing part of this story. The amazing part is the Ohio House passed the bill by a vote of 97-0! Incredible! Are they united? Is there any partisan politics going on here? Do you think transportation is important to Ohio?

Ohio already has a 28-cent gas tax that generates about $1 billion a year more than Michigan and they understand that it is not enough. Part of the bill they passed includes establishment of a legislative task force to look at future funding for transportation in Ohio requires ODOT to develop metrics to compare data across transportation modes and set tighter standards for driver-training school instructors.

While the legislature in Michigan remains indecisive on how to address the transportation shortfalls in our state, our neighbors to the south already invested more in transportation than we do. They are also studying ways of increasing revenue, and are politically all on the same page in the importance of doing so. 97-0!

So, now you know why pavement conditions of roads in Ohio are so much better than the condition of roads in Michigan. A yes vote on May 5th helps to get us closer to being able to compete. A no vote pushes us further and further back and ensures that Ohio’s roads will be better than Michigan’s for the foreseeable future.