It seems like Michigan lawmakers have been fighting about road spending for forever. This is because the state is responsible for keeping roads in good working order, and that requires political solutions. There has been a never-ending debate over what those solutions should be. The latest disagreement is between House Republicans, whose Speaker Matt Hall of Richland Township wants to spend more on roads without raising taxes, and Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who wants to spend more on roads by raising taxes.

Sound familiar? It should. In 2019 Whitmer asked for $2.5 billion in tax hikes in order to spend $1.9 billion on roads, with the rest going to her other priorities. The Legislature countered by allocating $400 million more to roads without raising taxes. The governor vetoed the extra spending.

There has been no major change in state road spending since then. The governor borrowed money from future road funding taxes to spend money over her term, which decreases long-term road funding and adds extra interest costs.

Lawmakers now find themselves in the same position they were in during 2019, Whitmer’s first year in office.

There are differences this time around. The state is further from what should be lawmakers’ goal: to fix roads faster than they fall apart. Michigan was close to this goal when the governor began her term, but the state has fallen behind since then.

Tax collections have gone up since 2019. State spending has gone up, too, increasing from $34.4 billion to $46.8 billion from fiscal year 2018-19 to 2024-25, a 9% increase when adjusted for inflation.

Lawmakers are spending more on business subsidies and pork, not roads and bridges. They authorized $4.7 billion in corporate handouts and more than $3 billion in district grants over the last two years for items such as cricket fields and a distillery.

Another difference between 2025 and 2019 is that Democrats have a majority in the Senate this year while in 2019 Republicans had majorities in both chambers. This allowed Republicans to approve an alternative to Whitmer’s tax hikes, while this year Republicans must work with Democrats to pass an alternative.

Note that Whitmer could have recommended tax hikes last year when Democrats controlled both chambers. She would have had a stronger voice within her own party to get what she wanted. But Whitmer has been inconsistent. She called for tax hikes in 2019, and when she ran for reelection, she boasted about not raising taxes.

Lawmakers ought to find money in the budget to improve roads without raising taxes. Hall has pitched one way to do it, and there are benefits to his proposal. Taxpayers would appreciate getting long-term road quality without having to pay more. The money would come from ending the state’s ineffective corporate handouts. Spending that money on roads would do more to benefit the public than writing checks to select businesses.

I would list the potential benefits of raising taxes, but Whitmer hasn’t highlighted them. She has said businesses should pay their fair share, but she didn’t explain what their fair share might be, and she did not explain how she’d tax them more, either. Her other recommendation — to raise marijuana taxes — seems like targeting an unpopular group. It appears that the governor’s tax hikes are meant to impose punishment to pay for something that the state can already afford without raising taxes.

It is better to fix roads faster than they fall apart without having to take more from the state’s taxpayers. That was as true in 2019 as it is in the current debate. Voters should hope that lawmakers agree to a solution this time. That solution should be to set the state on a course for long-term improvements in road quality without tax hikes.

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