(Source: MIRS.news, Published 04/18/2022) Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has touted the same numbers in a talking point she has reiterated since introducing the Fiscal Year (FY) 2023 budget in February.
The talking point has been used in press releases, conferences and speeches Whitmer has given since she introduced the budget. She has also appropriated press releases from Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) directly and added the same talking point to them in an effort to deflect Republican criticism that she hasn’t been “fixing the damn roads.”
“Since Whitmer has taken office, Michigan has repaired, replaced, or rebuilt over 13,000 lane miles of road and over 900 bridges,” Whitmer has stated.
The talking point has appeared in more than 20 press releases since Feb. 10, with the pace speeding up after she submitted her signatures to run for reelection March 17.
Emails with the verbatim language showed up nearly three-times per week in March and nearly every working day in April. It was mentioned twice in February.
The talking point also appeared in two non-road related releases regarding unemployment numbers in Michigan.
Chris DeWitt, of DeWitt Communications, who has worked on several campaigns, said it was a prominent promise that she made during her first election campaign that is easy to talk about, but harder to pull off.
“The fact we are so far behind on fixing the roads, that doing it in a four-year time frame is pretty hard,” DeWitt said.
Most road projects are just getting started for construction season as orange barrels go up on highways and trunklines across the state.
Stacy LaRouche, a Whitmer spokesperson, said the numbers from the talking point were pulled from MDOT data.
“We do plan to update those numbers as construction season gets moving,” LaRouche said.
Lance Binoniemi, a Michigan Infrastructure and Transportation Association spokesperson, said Whitmer does have some standing for her talking point.
Binoniemi said the bonding program put forth by Whitmer was a good accomplishment and the fact is she has been trying to funnel whatever appropriations she can get toward road funding.
“We’re still looking for that long-term sustainable funding solution from the Legislature and Governor,” he said.
DeWitt and Binoniemi said there was a section of the talking point that could be deceptive though. The use of the term “lane-mile.”
MDOT calculates a “lane-mile” by multiplying the number of miles of a road by the number of lanes it has. For example, one mile of a four-lane highway is equal to four lane miles.
“I think that language really resonates with the public,” Binoniemi said. “But I think the public gets confused with that type of language,”
The other caveat is that the state department doesn’t have control over many of the pockmarked roads that remain in counties across the state, giving Republicans a basis for their attack on her campaign promise.
“There wasn’t an asterisk on the promise. She has control over the state roads but not the local roads,” DeWitt said.
He said while the Republicans have been attacking that point, they don’t have a plan themselves to move funding into a local level.
“In politics you don’t necessarily have to have a plan to attack your opponent,” DeWitt said.
Whitmer is not the first governor to take on the issue of roads. Former Gov. John ENGLER also made it a talking point during his tenure in office.
“I don’t remember him hitting it quite as hard as she is,” DeWitt said.
Binoniemi said it has been an issue that all governors have had to grapple with in some way, or have taken credit for when given the opportunity to tout appropriations from the federal government.
He also said road projects don’t just happen overnight.
“There are a lot of projects in the works, but the time can be adjusted for emergencies,” Binoniemi said.
