The following is an example of why politicians keep wasting taxpayer funds and continue to raise our taxes.

Because people have very short memories and they want what they want and they want it now!

Due to the extremely cold January and warmer than usual February our roads have taken a toll.  There are many potholes in Michigan roads and some of them are truly tire and rim busters, I have seen and luckily as of this morning dodged them.

There is an article in the Detroit Free Press, that I would call agenda driven.  In the article the Detroit Free Press went out and found Michigan residents who were affected by the large number of potholes last month.  They are stating that they want the Michigan legislature to not give the people of Michigan any tax breaks and keep our money to fix the roads.

Dean Bressler, a retired Ford Motor worker in Ida Township was quoted in the article stating:

I would rather have more money spent on the roads than to have the tax cut…What is $50 nowadays? Take that money and get the roads taken care of. The roads are awful.

There are a number of sentiments just like Dean’s in the article.

Although the Detroit Free Press did speak to someone with a different view, Lori Whitney, who described herself as a homemaker and part-time sales worker in Rochester said she believes her family will save about $75 a year from the tax cut and she did not trust the government to spend her families’ money correctly.  She was quoted in the article stating:

It's that much more money that they can't waste

As I stated you can always find people who have spent a lot of money on repairing their tires and rims recently.  So the money they would receive back in the tax break, reported in the article to be $25 to $100’s a year is nothing when compared to the cost of their repairs.  You can always find someone among the over 7 million drivers in Michigan that would be legitimately upset over the roads due to costly repairs to their vehicles.

The tax break the article refers to is Michigan's personal exemption reform that Michigan’s Legislature had to pass due to the new Federal tax reform.  That personal exemption is currently $4,000 and would have gradually increased to $4,300 by 2021 under Michigan current law, but now will instead increase to $4,900 in 2021 under the legislation Governor Snyder recently signed.

Once that increase is fully phased in, the article states that the change would cost the treasury about $180 million a year.  Don’t you love how they use the word “cost” the treasury?  It will not “cost” the treasury anything because it is not theirs in the first place.  Another example of how some in government and the main stream manipulative news considers our money the government’s money and we are blessed by the government to be allowed to keep some of what we earn.  I am not against taxation at all, but I am against a bloated government who wastes our taxes and then feels like they are entitled to our money.

What these Michigan residents do not realize or have forgotten that Michigan legislators from both parties have already passed and started to collect huge sums of new tax dollars back in 2015 that took effect starting January 1, 2017.

These tax dollars are expected to bring in an additional $1.2 billion a year in taxes that we are told will be dedicated to fixing our roads.  I understand the pain of these Michigan residents who have had expensive vehicle repairs but the problems with our roads have been created over decades and cannot be “fixed” overnight.

Too many people think that if you throw a lot of money at a problem it will be fixed.  Have we not learned that does not work, look at our schools.  Also remember what happen with the Porkulus/Stimulus bill titled The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 was passed.  Even former President Obama laughed when he stated that "shovel ready was not as shovel ready as we expected".

My thought, give me the tax break and use the $1.2 billion dollars in extra taxes a year to fix the roads.

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