Ransomware and Michigan Road Proposal

In the IT realm where I spend my working hours, there is a class of nefarious software called "Ransomware".  It's a type of virus that infects your computer and encrypts the contents of your hard drive.  The next time you boot your computer all you get is a message stating your computer has been hijacked and you have to send money to a certain place to get the decryption key to recover your drive.

Michigan's Proposal 1, which we will be voting on in May, is similar to Ramsomware.  The State is saying that if the voters don't approve a 2 billion dollar tax hike, the State isn't going to fix the roads.

Frankly, I find this disgusting and there are a lot more like me out here who feel similarly.  Steve Gruber, at WJIM Radio, is one:  "Governor Says My Life is in Danger: Really?"

During one event highlighting the “Safe Roads Yes” campaign Snyder held up a chunks of what he said was from crumbling roads and bridges. “Can you imagine one of these coming through your windshield?” he said for effect.
It seems disingenuous and a bit silly at this point to be preaching doom and gloom and telling us frankly we could die- I mean how long have these people been trying to fix the roads anyway? And when they finally arrive at a $2 Billion dollar tax hike solution they lack the political courage to figure it out themselves. No, instead they send it back to the people… you know the ones that elected them to solve tough problems in the first place. At first I thought that was a good idea. Of course that was when I thought they actually intended to put the money, all of it, toward roads. That is a long way from the reality.
In fact only about $1.2 billion is actually intended to be used for roads and that won’t happen until at least 2018. The rest is why so many people despise politics and politicians because it is a pile of other spending that has exactly nothing to do with saving our lives from concrete falling out of the sky. According to the House Fiscal Agency $600 million a year would go to schools, cities, mass transit, the state’s general fund and tax breaks in the form of more earned income tax credits. With a debt far north of $75 Billion dollars it seems more likely our financial house will crash in on top of us before a stray piece of concrete gets us.

For myself, I'll say it again - Fix the problems with State Government bloat and overreach before you come for any more of *my* money.  MEDC and the Dept. of Education are two good places to eliminate if you want to find some more money.