We’ve yet to hear a practical alternative for coming up with the money to invest in repairing and maintaining local roads and streets from opponents of the wheel tax.
And we’re not likely to hear one.
For the truth is local governments have been running short on road money for years — and so has the state, and so has the federal government.
Gas taxes aren’t generating as much money as they once did because vehicles today are more fuel-efficient — they’ve become so much more efficient that the U.S. is now a major oil exporter, although you couldn’t prove that by high gas prices.
There’s less money coming in yet roads and streets still have to be maintained and repaired while, at an increasingly-alarming rate, bridges have to be replaced.
The supply of money to do the work continues to decline while the demand for the work itself continues to rise unabated.
We’re not yet ready to trust the state to continue to provide extra money for local roads and streets.
The state promised to fully support public school general funds with new sales-tax revenues, yet here they are, taking away some of that money to shift to road repairs.
And there’s Interstate 69 to finish and maintain.
So the question is, What’s the best way to come up with the money to repair local roads and streets?
The old bromide to the affect that if county government would only stop its wasteful spending there would be more than enough money for roads has, for those who resort to repeating it, the great disadvantage of not being true.
If anything, county government has been a touch too frugal with tax dollars; it definitely hasn’t been spendthrift in their use.
This isn’t the first time the county has faced such a situation, of not having enough money to effectively provide services.
Back 15-20 years ago, when property taxes weren’t raising enough money to adequately meet the demand for government services, wise local officials adopted new taxes (COIT and EDIT) to make up the difference, just as 10 years ago, when the county was essentially ordered to build a new jail, they adopted another new, temporary tax to pay for its construction.
Adoption of those new taxes was met with opposition on each occasion, but those local officials who supported them did the right thing both times — and the county has benefited greatly.
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http://suncommercial.com/articles/2013/06/21/opinions/opinions/doc51c5069ae3fd9805942732.txt
