There's a lot of talk in Michigan lately about the state's budget problems. Some think the state should cut back on spending, others think raising taxes is the answer. Either way, the state is going to need to balance it's budget with the limited resources available.

It is critical toward the state's economic success that we invest in areas where it will do the most good. Education is obviously paramount in the long-term. So is public safety. One item that's often overlooked, but is vitally important, is the state's physical infrastructure.

Road dollars have been a sore point in Michigan for many years now. In fact, our roads have been declining since the early 1970s, as have our share of federal road dollars.

Novi has made up for some of it's share of these missing dollars by investing in roads through bonds. In other words, we raised taxes to fix a problem, and for the most part it worked.

However, even Novi isn't immune to the political problems associated with roads. Witness the poor shape of Nine Mile Road west of Haggerty, or other major city streets in need of repair while many neighborhood streets are in excellent condition and were repaired before they even needed work.

The first thing a prospective employer, employee or resident sees when they come into the area is the roads. At most of our city's entryways, roads and traffic are a mess. Most of these issues are the county's - Novi Road congestion, Eight Mile Road traffic backups, Grand River Avenue east of Novi Road, and Novi Road south of Grand River are all county roads. However, it's still our issue in the long run.

The state, county and city did well to make the Beck Road interchange look good. Really good. You even need sunglasses at night there! A lot of visitors use this interchange to visit the Rock Financial Showplace, and it makes Novi proud.

Now, we need to do the same thing with the other major roads - especially the key roads that people use to enter our fine city.

Businesses are not going to relocate to Novi, or anywhere else in this region, if they can't get there in a reasonable manner. Haggerty Road is not in reasonable shape, nor is Grand River east of Novi Road, nor is Novi Road south of Grand River. These are all county issues.

We the People need to demand we get our fair share of road dollars, and demand that those road dollars be used where they can best serve everyone. We cannot wait 5, 10 or 20 years to repair these roads. The economic costs of not having decent roads is too great.

Think about entering Novi and driving to a prospective business location as if you where thinking about locating here. What do you see today? What should you see? Do you even see a decent looking "Welcome to Novi" sign?

Sadly, it's not a pretty sight.