That's why I pay that fat tax bill
It's the time of year when the county's unimproved roads are starting to turn to mush. It's a little early because of the warm weather and rain, but the thaw is enough to turn some of those roads into quicksand. Did you see where the road commission actually is shutting down some roads.
Us city folk don't have to worry about that. Most everywhere in the city is paved in some manner.
It puts things in perspective. We can gripe about our taxes, but at least we can leave the house and drive down the road so we can make money to pay them. Some of our fellow Monroe Countyians get stuck in front of their homes and can't go anywhere.
It also puts into perspective how much "infrastructure" improvement we might really need. How bad would our crumbling streets and curbs have to get before we couldn't travel down them anymore? That might be something for the new mayor and council to consider before they go overboard on spending to preserve an infrastructure that's still seems to be doing the job even after years of neglect.
Why should infrastructure and capital improvements get priority at a time when city finances are thin when they weren't big priorities in years when finances were fat?
My garage needs siding, but I made less money last year than the year before. Should I buy new siding anyway?
Not this year.
Us city folk don't have to worry about that. Most everywhere in the city is paved in some manner.
It puts things in perspective. We can gripe about our taxes, but at least we can leave the house and drive down the road so we can make money to pay them. Some of our fellow Monroe Countyians get stuck in front of their homes and can't go anywhere.
It also puts into perspective how much "infrastructure" improvement we might really need. How bad would our crumbling streets and curbs have to get before we couldn't travel down them anymore? That might be something for the new mayor and council to consider before they go overboard on spending to preserve an infrastructure that's still seems to be doing the job even after years of neglect.
Why should infrastructure and capital improvements get priority at a time when city finances are thin when they weren't big priorities in years when finances were fat?
My garage needs siding, but I made less money last year than the year before. Should I buy new siding anyway?
Not this year.
posted by The Observer at 1/09/2008 10:27:00 AM
1 Comments:
Observer,
Your position is poorly thought out.
Sometimes you need to spend a little money now to avoid a big bill later.
For example, say you decide you can't afford to put siding on your garage. The old siding is badly worn and allows water to leak into the structure. The structure rots out. In a few years you will be paying to tear down and dispose of your old garage and then will have to build a new one. This will take much more cost than what the siding repair would have cost.
If we ignore our streets, sewers, and water mains we will end up paying even more in the form of patching crews for the roads, overtime to fix water mains when they burst, and EPA fines for mixing raw sewage with storm water.
I think it is fiscally responsible to address the issues now instead of waiting until the disaster happens.
The people that choose to live in the county will find out how much roads cost in the long run. The county is not going to volunteer to fix all the roads in the subdivisions in Frenchtown, Monroe Town, Bedford, etc. These roads were built with minimum expenditure to maximize a developer’s bottom line. These cheaply constructed roads and are going to fail, and those residents will be faced with large assessments to repair them and / or rapidly declining housing prices due to living in a poorly maintained ghetto. They will then learn that their artificially low taxation rate was in fact not covering the cost of maintaining the public utilities and roads.
The new administration needs to concentrate on right sizing the city including the excessive spending on fire and police and accelerating the repair schedule. A concrete road may optimistically last 50 years. We are not on pace to replace / improve things at the rate they are wearing out.
Now - I agree we don't need any John Iaco splash parks in the future, but if you honestly believe we should ignore our streets, sewers, and water mains you are a moron.
Roundybout.
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