Here We Go Again

Today's Journal concerning the lack of funds for roads.....

Local street repair budgets being cut
City’s reduction is more than half of its 2011 expenditures

Many local cities are putting road repair and maintenance on the backburner in the face of revenue cuts, resulting in aggravated drivers, damaged cars and ultimately more costly repairs down the line.
Safety and road repairs are the two areas that taxpayers, when surveyed by cities, say they want their tax money spent on. But, an extensive examination of road work spending by the Hamilton JournalNews shows most local cities have slashed the amount spent.
In 2012, Middletown cut money budgeted for road repairs by more than $2 million. Hamilton cut its road repair budget by 
$3 million, a reduction by more than half of its 2011 expenditures. City officials said cuts come because of a loss of revenue for the cities, particularly the state’s elimination of its local government fund and the estate tax.
“There are areas that are definitely in need of repair,” said Middletown Mayor Larry Mulligan. “We had to make a lot of tough choices in the past year. The bulk of our money is tied up in personnel, especially for public safety. When you’re making personnel cuts, its tough to put money aside for roads.”

BUT WE SEEM TO HAVE MONEY FOR ALOT OF THINGS WE DON'T REALLY NEED AND SHOULD BE WAY DOWN THE LIST AS TO PRIORITY LAWRENCE. THINGS LIKE YOUR DOWNTOWN REDEVELOPMENT AND BUYING BUILDINGS FOR THE PRIVATE SECTOR IN THE HOPE THEY WILL LOCATE TO YOUR DOWNTOWN.

“There’s just not the money to do what needs to be done,” said Steve Husemann, Middletown’s interim public works director.
Most engineers say a road should be repaved every 10-12 years, but cities often have more pressing needs that funnel the money away from those programs.

AHH STEVIE, BUT THERE IS SUPPOSE TO BE A ROAD FUND STILL THERE FROM THE 80'S THAT YOU PEOPLE IN THE CITY BUILDING FAILED TO REPLACE AFTER LYING TO THE VOTERS TELLING US THAT IT WAS ONLY TEMPORARY. 20+ YEARS LATER, YOU PEOPLE STILL HAVEN'T REPLACED THE MONEY TAKEN.

Scott Padych, the assistant city engineer in Middletown, said he believes the city has done a ‘good job’ in keeping up the health of Middletown’s main roads, but there are side streets that are lacking.
“Funding has been low for many years,” Padych said. “We’ve done pretty well in maintaining grants for larger roads and maximizing the work we can do.”

AGAIN SCOTTY, IF THE MONEY WAS PUT BACK WHERE IT WAS TAKEN FROM IN THE 80's, AND THE CITY WOULD HAVE BUDGETED A % EACH YEAR TO REPLENISH, AND FROM THAT FUND, A ROAD PREVENTATIVE MAINTENANCE PROGRAM WAS MAINTAINED, WE WOULD NOT HAVE GOTTEN TO THE PLACE WE ARE NOW. THE BLAME, AS USUAL, IS POINTED AT THE INCOMPETENCE IN THE CITY BUILDING.

John, I beg to differ on the "good point." In 1986 city council took money OUT of the dedicated road fund, to avoid making any personnel cuts. That practice was supposed to have been short-term, maybe 3-4 years.

Well, since 1986, the city has never restored the dedicated funds by ordinance, that they used to pay for salaries and avoid the tough decisions in making cuts, which has led to the rather poor road and infrastructure in Middletown.

The problem is not the city is avoiding road repair because of the need to keep people on payroll; rather, it was the decision to avoid ever putting funds back into roads, that led to the disaster in the roads because they did not want to lay off employees in 1986.

Same practice today. Tough decisions are never made, and the citizen picks up the pieces....of asphalt, broken axles, etc.    

They did such a good job raiding the street fund that they then raided the sewer fund.