Governor Granholm has vetoed a bill that would reopen Tienken Road at the boundary of Auburn Hills and Rochester Hills by enabling the road to be transferred back to the Road Commission for Oakland County, which might resolve the dispute between the two cities. The Governor and some legislators have said it is important to preserve city control over local streets.
Sorry, but mile roads like Tienken Road should be kept open and uncongested to allow free circulation by drivers over the roads they've paid for. Regional mobility is too important to be left up to local governments. Cities will ALWAYS act in favor of their local interests, and will try to divert traffic to neighboring jurisdictions and will sometimes actively screw motorists with mis-timed traffic signals and speed traps. Road-using taxpayers should be able to count on the state to defend our right to travel.
SB 145 was a rare case of legislators standing up for the rights of the majority over NIMBYs ("not in my back yard"), but the Governor's veto shows that her loyalty is to local politicians, not the people. Who will stand up for the state when it's time to build Michigan's next highways, airports, power plants, factories and pipelines? Now that much of southeast Michigan is covered by home-rule cities whose boundaries butt up against each other, our leaders may occasionally have to stand up against local governments if the state's economy isn't to be paralyzed.