Last year, things got so bad along a road near Pellston that the Emmet County Road Commission just gave up.
Pulverize it, they said. And pavement was turned to gravel.
Think about that for a second. All over the state, local government officials are tearing up roads rather than fixing them, because it's cheaper and Michigan taxpayers don't pay to keep them up.
When it comes to infrastructure, Michigan has long been like a lousy homeowner: shorting funds for maintenance and putting off big projects.
Now our roads and bridges (not to mention our water pipes and sewers) are ramshackle and deteriorating. The backlog to fund and fix everything is now firmly in the billions.
So Gov. Rick Snyder is on the right track with his ambitious plan, announced Wednesday, to reclaim the state's infrastructure, and properly fund its upkeep going into the future.
What he's proposing is significant not just for the specific changes he'll pursue, but for the culture change he's trying to effect. Snyder wants to end the fantasy that says Michigan can have solid infrastructure without paying for it. And he wants to prove that up-front investment will mean lower costs in the long run.
That won't be easy in the current climate, when any talk of taxes or spending brings out the goofy fringe of Snyder's own Republican Party, screeching about the virtue of tax cuts as a solution to every problem. And because Michigan has waited so long to get serious about this issue, the bill will be higher and will exact a far greater toll on many more people than it needed to.
There are some tough sacrifices that will need to be made in the short term to get Michigan's innards back in good shape.
Foremost in that category is Snyder's plan to add an average of $120 to yearly car registration fees, which would raise an additional $1 billion to $1.4 billion annually for roads.
The money would help ameliorate the dramatic loss in buying power for the state's road funds that springs from the failure to raise the gas tax since 1997. Michigan has about $300 million less today in real dollars for the road fund than it had in 1998.
The new money would also help leverage federal funds that would begin to clear the backlog of crumbling roads. By 2023, Snyder estimates, the new money would help restore 81% of Michigan's roads to good or fair condition, up from less than 70% today.
Snyder would also allow local governments to add, with voter approval, a $40 yearly registration fee to help them cover roads they maintain.
The downside of Snyder's proposal is obvious. It's a big hit to people's wallets in a state still struggling to rebound from a decade-long recession. A family with three cars registered to one person would have to fork over $360 extra all at once to get new license tabs.
It's worth the Legislature considering whether that can be softened some, maybe phased in over time. Or perhaps it could kick in when people buy new cars, and grandfather in existing ones.
But it should be clear to lawmakers and citizens in Michigan that the more prudent thing would be to swallow the whole increase as soon as possible. Putting it off in any way will just cost us all more down the road.
Some of the governor's proposals include more efficient use of road money -- eliminating local road commissions, for example, and taking advantage of technologies that prolong road life and lower repair costs.
But none of those mean much if Michigan doesn't embrace a more rational way to maintain the road funds.
What Snyder is trying to make clear is that you can't get something for nothing. Roads cost money to build and maintain. And if you short on the upkeep, it only costs you more later.
Michigan hasn't been able to get that right for years, maybe decades. Now we're destroying roads rather than fixing them. That's no way to build a future or to revive the state's economic vitality.
The governor's right on this one, and anyone who cares about Michigan's future or economic vitality ought to get behind him.
Stephen Henderson is editorial page editor for the Free Press and the host of "American Black Journal," which airs at 1 p.m. on Sundays on Detroit Public Television. Contact Henderson at shenderson600@freepress.com , or at 313-222-6659.
http://www.freep.com/article/20111028/COL33/110280334/Stephen-Henderson-Good-roads-cost-Gov-Snyder-s-plan-faces-up-reality