I was part of a panel that made a presentation to local government leaders, in Livingston County, on Proposal 1 last week. During the questions and answers part of the discussion, I was asked if there was a Plan B. I responded that there was no Plan B and there still isn’t! Immediately, a hand went into the air and an attendee said I was wrong. That a legislator had already submitted a piece of legislation to deal with the aftermath of a potential “no” vote on Prop 1. I indicated that a legislator introducing a piece of legislation did not constitute Plan B. There have been many pieces of legislation introduced that have gone nowhere, over the past 17 years. That the legislature has failed to increase the gas tax. Just because something has been introduced does not mean that the other legislative bodies and the governor are going to agree.

Also, just because something is introduced doesn’t mean that it is better than what is before the voters in May. If you don’t want to raise revenues, in order to address the problem, then you have to find a consensus on what to cut in the budget. In fact, at a recent SEMCOG General Assembly, most of the elected officials polled indicated that finding the money to fix roads in the existing budget would be their first priority. The tricky part is getting everyone to agree on where to cut the budget. When we asked that question, the answers were all over the board! And that is another part of the problem, the disagreement on the relative importance of transportation over other important programs. They are all important!

There is no Plan B on the table, only another opinion on what should be done if this fails. I will continue to repeat this simple truth as the only guarantee you will get. If you vote yes on May 5, the conditions of roads and bridges and (to a lesser extent) public transit, will get better. If you vote no, they will all continue to get worse. Don’t hold your breath on the legislature agreeing on how to fix this, they have been working for the last 17 years just to get this far.