County road fund depleted
Commissioners suspend all major roadwork until the new budget year — or until money is found elsewhere
Commissioners suspend all major roadwork until the new budget year — or until money is found elsewhere
Buchanan County commissioners are out of money to improve roads and bridges and they say a harsh winter and high gas prices are to blame.
By the end of August, the county will have used all its nearly $2 million budget to buy fuel, pave and maintain roads and bridges, and repair road equipment. Commissioners have suspended all major roadwork including laying gravel and chip-and-seal (an abrasive that looks like blacktop) until the new budget year begins in January, or money is found elsewhere.
“We’ve shut down any spending other than payroll and fuel,” Eastern District Commissioner Dan Hausman said. “It’s been a unique year. I hope we don’t have another like this for awhile.”
Commissioners expect they will need to come up with about $80,000 to cover fuel costs for road crews in the next four months.
Mr. Hausman also hopes continuing to fill ditches with leftover concrete from area construction projects and historically low road maintenance costs during the last four months of the year will carry them through.
This isn’t the first year county road maintenance has gone over its budget.
Last year, the budget to maintain county roads and bridges was about $1.58 million. It went over that amount late in the year, and in 2008 commissioners increased the road budget with an extra $400,000.
None of the eight other county departments, except the Buchanan County Sheriff’s Department, received a bump in its budget for 2008.
Presiding Commissioner R.T. Turner said roads and law enforcement are the two issues most important to county residents.
He said since the road budget went over again this year, they hope to increase the budget in 2009 — as long as the county has enough revenue.
The commission is investigating three possible reserve sources to cover the road maintenance shortfall: gaming money, the county’s capital improvement tax, and leftover funds from a bond package to the Shoppes at North Village.
“We’re looking to see if there is any money under budget that we can use,” Mr. Turner said.
Ahmad Safi can be reached at ahmadsafi@npgco.com.
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Our roads are the worst, and while it has a lot to do with our weather patterns, it is also a failure to address the problem. $2mil is obviously not enough, so I propose a solution. As a short disclaimer, this has nothing to do with "encouraging people to quit," as I'm a strong proponent of personal liberty. I'm a smoker, and I would be more than happy to pay a small percentage higher sales tax on my smokes given that I was 100% certain that it would be spent on our roads. Any takers?
Posted by CatFish_Wiskers on August 14, 2008 at 3:30 p.m. (Suggest removal)Why tax Smokers? Why not tax marbles or speaker wires.
Better yet, how about we NOT tax people randomly and instead tax tires and fuel.
Better still, we dont raise taxes at all. We spend our money more efficiently and in areas that deserve it.
Wiskers out.
Posted by bs64507 on August 14, 2008 at 7:12 p.m. (Suggest removal)torq:
Posted by MichaelH on August 14, 2008 at 11:14 p.m. (Suggest removal)You gotta be a democrat. When the government runs out of money, don't look to see if it was wasted, just raise taxes. I'm tired of being taxed so the government, local, state and federal, can waste more money on pet projects. I don't believe the roads are a pet project, but why are some roads better taken care of than others. Why pave a gravel road when it's not necessary. I live down a road where they just replaced a bridge. Took them 2 years to do it. Why so long? On most days they weren't even working on it. There needs to be some accountability in government. Quit taxing me.
Revolution.
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