The money spent on road maintenance (such as filling potholes, street sweeping, or constructing speed bumps) is allocated from taxes collected by each city government

Evaluate the quality of the argument. How well did the author make their case? Does their conclusion make sense? What follow-up questions would you ask the author? Use what you’ve learned about the straw man to help you. You are also welcome to address other issues that you notice in the argument–just make sure to address straw man as part of your response.

Argument: In California, most of the money spent on road maintenance (such as filling potholes, street sweeping, or constructing speed bumps) is allocated from taxes collected by each city government. However, different cities within the state give different priority to the amount of money they will spend on road maintenance. For example, in the last five years alone, Santa Clarita has spent twice as much on road maintenance as San Fernando has, even though both cities have a similar number of residents. Clearly, we here in Santa Clarita are much more concerned about the safety and well-being of our neighbors than the selfish residents of San Fernando. Therefore, we deserve the state grant of $1.5 million to landscape the parkways of our major streets. (Note: parkways is one name for the narrow strips of grass between the sidewalk and the street.)