Senators Sikkema and Johnson and Rep. Shackleton were successful in using this bill to give the legislature the ability to decide which highway projects get built over the next five years. Now we will see how quickly the Michigan highway system turns into a giant pork barrel.
Maybe all that will happen is a few boondoggles get shifted from Detroit, Flint, and other Democratic territory into Grand Rapids, Bloomfield Hills, and rural Michigan. Maybe transit spending will be cut. Or, maybe a horde of freshman state representatives will take office next January, each intent on getting a piece of pork to cut the ribbon on in time for re-election in November of 2006. If these clowns get to fighting among themselves, and can't agree how to divvy up the spoils from Michigan drivers' taxes, look out.
If the current budget performance is any indication, Michigan's construction workers could watch next summer come and go without work before the legislature agrees who gets what.