Hey, let's raise taxes!

LANSING -- Cuts in spending on road and bridge construction could cost Michigan more than 12,000 jobs in the next three years unless the state raises another $1 billion a year in fuel taxes and vehicle registration fees, a coalition of business, government and labor groups backing the tax hikes said Wednesday.

The above is the first paragraph of a story in the Detroit Free Press from October 18. It would lead one to believe that we need to raise road taxes to preserve jobs, not to fix roads.

Here is an idea. Rather than soak the taxpayers again, let's get rid of the prevailing wage, which forces us to pay 20-30% more for construction projects than we need to. The unions are running the state, and it isn't a good thing. There are plenty of "merit shops", construction companies who will do quality work at a competitive price, who aren't even given consideration because they are not union shops. The result: we pay more for road projects, a lot more.