Thursday, March 28, 2024

Fixing potholes should be state priority

It’s annoying more than anything.

One of those petty little nuisances no driver can escape, but few ever do anything about. Every pothole could shake another piece underneath the car loose or offset the alignment a little further. Something broken? Well, that part will take about a week to arrive from Korea. Which costs extra.

These things have become acceptable in the lives of most Michigan drivers. The state’s winter climate wreaks havoc on roadways and the drivers end up paying for it.

Local and state governments have said for years they’re trying to improve Michigan’s roads, but few would say there has been any significant progress. Out-of-state travelers know Michigan has some of the worst roads in the country, but there’s still no sense of accountability from the government. Citizens shouldn’t have to pay for the government’s failure to control a simple problem.

It may seem like an obvious question, but shouldn’t the government be held responsible for this?

If potholes are going to remain this large of a problem, the drivers need to be compensated. We’ve already paid taxes to get potholes fixed, we shouldn’t have to pay for it at the mechanic’s, too. Fixing a pothole is one of the most basic examples of a government providing for its people. If it can’t even complete that simple task, what can we expect when it tries to accomplish something more important?

It doesn’t matter how the government compensates the drivers. That’s a different conversation entirely. It could be a rebate or a tax break, but it needs to be something. What’s important is that local and state governments take some financial responsibility for the quality of their roads. In a way, it can be considered a fine. A fine from the people of Michigan. It’s an interesting idea — a government answering to its people.

Detroit and many other cities in Michigan have earned broken-down, impoverished reputations. Littered with abandoned buildings waiting to be torn down, these buildings give off the impression that the city itself is about to crumble to the ground. These eyesores sit for years and even decades before solutions are found, or even looked for. The government’s inability to clean up these buildings, as well as the roads, gives visitors the appearance our government can’t even function on basic levels. Michigan doesn’t need any more bad publicity.

This is undoubtably not the first time someone has complained about potholes, and surely it won’t be the last. But the point isn’t to try and repeat the same argument, it’s to try turn that argument into something practical. Pay the “fine” for failing to maintain the roads and we’ll be even.

Either that or fix the potholes.

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