Mass Transit Skims $ 120 Million from Proposal 2015-01 Road Work Funds
Ever hear of the Michigan Comprehensive Transportation Fund? Ten cents of every Michigan fuel tax dollar gets diverted to this mass transportation slush fund. It is only just behind the sales tax as a diversion of your current fuel tax dollars from Michigan’s roads.
All motor vehicle fuel taxes collected in the State of Michigan are first deposited into the Michigan Transportation Fund. Then MCL 247.660 (1)(f) (Public Act 51 of 1951) dictates that 10% of the funds deposited in the Michigan Transportation Fund be immediately transferred to the Comprehensive Transportation Fund. The amended version of MCL 247.660 you are being offered in Proposal 2015-01 has the very same section (1)(f), making the same 10% immediate diversion.
So the $ 1.2 billion that Proposal 2015-01 supporters are promising you for road work is actually only $ 1.08 billion. Kirk T. Steudle, P.E. gets a whole new stash to maintain and expand his stable of rotting train cars, $ 120 million that cannot be spent on the roads by law. $ 120 million that gets skimmed from the $ 1.2 billion you are being promised for the roads. And no, it is not skimmed from the $ 800 million that Proposal 2015-01 dedicates to the Democratic base.
Now you now know how Michigan political math works in the age of Common Core. Pay $ 2 billion for roads, get $ 1 billion in road work.
(22)Nuh Uh.
(1)
To wit, in 2014 we arrived at this:
The Department continued to receive State General Fund support to partially address transportation funding shortfalls. Public Act (PA) 34 of 2014 appropriated $215 million as a one-time appropriation from the State General Fund. This act allocated $100 million for special winter road maintenance. Funding was distributed according according to the formula in PA 51 of 1951. Of that distribution, the Department received $39.1 million, counties received $39.1 million and cities received $21.8 million to offset winter maintenance costs.
Do not even get me started on any of the ARRA "shovel ready" make-work projects...
I have now forgotten every math lesson ever learned.
That video has given me a headache.
Oh, and that Comprehensive Transportation thing?
It's only the tip of the iceberg.
Hmmm. So, a $120,000,000 just magically goes into a slush fund. Well, perhaps one could suggest this ballot proposal, in part, is the figurative "toll both" for a certain project which traffic volume does not merit?
Not sayin', just sayin'... Poof! PFM!
Ps. see that? It's not just I who sometimes errors Stuedle's first name. Doesn't change the information whether "Kurt," "Kirk" or, "You're Fired!"
Au Contraire mon ami! Do you really think if you pour $1 Billion in the top of MDOT that it will all actually go to fix the roads. I read that only 30% of MDOT's budget actually goes to fixing roads and bridges. So in actuality, pay $2 billion and get $300 million to fix roads. What a deal. Fix MDOT not the roads!
Um... but weren't those tie-barred bills dedicating $800 mil. to the Democratic base passed by a Republican controlled legislature?
Yes. They were a complete substitution for previous failed legislation introduced at the 11th hour in a lame duck session. Doubt the legislators knew what was really in them. Remember Nancy Pelosi's most famous quote: "You have to pass the bill to find out what is in it"? The HJR UU package is riddled with errors and mistakes.
Pretty bitter example of what happens when a devious Governor and state bureaucrats manipulate a legislature with every trick in the book, with the capable assistance of our brain dead media and avaricious contractors.
I love it! You mentioned Nancy's famous quote. Yep. That's exactly what a Nerdpublicrat majority with every lever of power in Lansing, looks like.
Not to say, "I told y'all so" but... what an *honorable* brain trust, eh?
A 10 page bill with 8 full lines changed related to the school fund is hardly the ACA. The Republicans passed it, so they own it.