Did Baird Impress The Michigan Senate

$550M did not impress too many people I am afraid nor did the Governor's theatrics.

Keith Crain, editor-in-chief of Crain's Detroit Business, just wrote this:

• "There is a controversy over whether or not to build a second bridge between Detroit and Windsor and whether Matty Moroun should be allowed to add a second span to his Ambassador Bridge.
  
  I say: Let the guy spend his own money and expand his bridge.
  
  With all the troubles facing our state from budget and manpower shortages, we would be wise to just shelve the government plans and let private enterprise continue to invest its money. Traffic is down from a decade ago; we can wait to see if the traffic increases enough to justify investing public money.

I do not think Baird did much considering these votes taken by the Senators:

• "Sec. 384. On or before March 1, 2011, the department shall report to the state budget director, the house and senate appropriations subcommittees on transportation, and the house and senate fiscal agencies on department activities related to the Detroit River International Crossing. The department shall not make any expenditure, commit to an expenditure, or bind the state to an expenditure, related to the Detroit River International Crossing (DRIC) unless the legislature has enacted specific enabling legislation to allow for the construction of DRIC."

And the DRIC favourite, Senator Basham, tried to help out the P3 cause in Michigan. Sorry no luck there either:

Let's see how events play out this week in the Michigan House and see how impressed they were with Baird's antics.