A Historical View Of The County’s Bridge Financing Failure
Posted by Jeff Pruitt - 7/17/08 @ 8:44 am - Filed Under 2008 Local Elections, Featured, Local Politics
The county council and commissioners would have you believe that the current financial crisis involving bridges was somehow unforeseen or unavoidable. The truth is everyone knew it was a poor decision to eliminate the county’s cumulative bridge fund - the county’s own highway director Mike Fitch even told them as much.
So just keep in mind that when commissioner Nelson Peters tells the public that the county has enough cash reserves to maintain bridges in the county it’s because they created that reserve on the back of bridge maintenance.
$750k per year used to go to maintenance but in 2002 they decided to send it to the general fund instead. They simply started playing a shell game hoping the problem would go away. So let’s a take a brief historical tour into what actually happened and shed some light on the current problem:
in the early ’90s, the county started putting fewer dollars in the fund so it could spend more elsewhere. By the time commissioners killed it altogether last week, it was down to 3.75 cents, enough to raise $700,000 to $800,000 a year. That was barely enough, Fitch says, for routine maintenance such as deck cleaning and logjam removal.
And the county council was approached a couple of years ago about a bond issue, “but because of the jail and a couple of other things, they just said `forget it.’ ”
It’s not hard to see where this will lead. All we have to do is look at the EPA edict requiring Fort Wayne to do long-overdue sewer upgrades that will cost more than $100 million. As Fitch says, it’s not if, but of when and how much. (NS 9/26/2002)
Now there’s fiscal responsibility! Your own highway director tells you he needs money time and again and you just say “Forget it”. And while everyone else could see where their decision to eliminate the CBF would lead, evidently they couldn’t. So after years of myopic financial planning they’ve decided to just give up.
By eliminating the cumulative bridge tax, which helps fix small bridges, the county can increase the amount of taxes going into its general fund and prevent further layoffs and budget cuts.
“This is not the happiest day of my life, abolishing the bridge fund,” Commissioner Linda Bloom said. Making the change is not something the commissioners take lightly, Bloom said. (JG 9/19/2002)
For all you keeping score at home that’s current county commissioner Linda Bloom. And while they blame annexation for their decision to quit paying for bridges the truth is they’ve had the idea of abdicating their financial responsibility for quite some time.
Although county officials have not said they will not maintain city bridges in the future, some have suggested the possibility - especially now that the county is free from the legal obligations imposed by the presence of a cumulative bridge fund. County Council President Mike Cunegin said council would probably pass a bond issue if necessary “for the safety of our citizens.” And he wouldn’t rule out the possibility of asking the city to help bear some of the cost the county has borne alone until now. But county officials, he said, will cross that bridge when they come to it. (NS 11/18/2002)
This has always been their fall back plan. I can see what happened in hindsight - they simply ignored the problem, hoping it would fix itself, and then if that failed they knew they could just punt to the city.
County Council last year closed out the cumulative bridge fund, used to maintain bridges under 200 feet in length. That decision provided the county’s general fund $750,000 a year but left little money for bridge repair. That decision might have been rash, Commissioner Marla Irving said today.
Although commissioners could have raised the bridge tax in addition to the special tax for the detention facilities, twin tax increases would not have been a good idea, they said. (NS 5/14/2003)
Ah yes, better to let the problem fester for a few years until it reaches the boiling point - always sage advice. More proof they’ve been looking at this for years:
Councilwoman Paula Hughes, R-2nd, questioned why Allen County should be responsible for the upkeep on every bridge when many were within cities and towns.
“I think the responsibility should be divided on individual municipalities,”she said. “There are miles and miles of roads, primarily in east Allen County, that aren’t paved yet.”
Councilman Roy Buskirk, R-At Large, said he was frustrated by the county doing roadwork on areas that were subsequently annexed by Fort Wayne.
Fitch said he would like to see the county begin another fund for bridge repair separate from the general fund. He said the county will likely continue to issue bonds to pay for major bridge repairs. (JG 5/19/2004)
Again, the county didn’t listen to the experts and now they find themselves in a poor financial position:
Allen County eliminated its bridge tax in September 2002 to free money for other priorities as the county struggled to balance its budget.
Before that, the tax had been scaled back so much that it was bringing in only enough to cover general maintenance, said Mike Fitch, Allen County highway director.
“I was floored when I found out they took the last 4 cents of that bridge fund,” said Bill Etzler, former highway director. The tax had reached 15 cents in 1984.
Martin commended the overall state of Allen County’s bridges. But without a bridge fund, he said, “they will deteriorate. If they don’t have some dedicated funding, they still need maintenance or they will not last.”
“Take $30 million and multiply by 3 percent and that’s how much we’re falling behind each year,” he said. “Is it something you can catch up on? Yes. But it’s expensive to catch up.”
Ideally, the county needs a long-term bridge fund to draw from, Fitch added.
“Without any consistent fund, it will be patch what we can do,” he said. “We never want to get into that situation where we could have a failure.”
Now that was good advice and county government would’ve been wise to listen to Fitch at the time instead of frustrating him to the point he decided to just quit…
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3 Responses to “A Historical View Of The County’s Bridge Financing Failure”
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It continually frustrates me to hear County officials talk about Fort Wayne like it’s another planet. I live in Fort Wayne. I pay taxes in Fort Wayne. But guess what, I live in Allen County, too, and I pay the same property taxes to Allen County that the guy in Monroeville or Leo does.
Ms. Golder was a little bit more sedated in her selection of words then I would be, so we will stick with hers.
Maybe Fort Wayne should seek a law change from the state. Fort Wayne would take over it’s share of bridges. Then city residents would pay maybe 5 bucks a year for each auto or truck. People outside Fort Wayne could buy one for 10 bucks a year. Those crossing bridges without proper sticker would be given $150 ticket, plus court costs.
Not really…. just kidding
One would think Bill Brown, who ran on the idea of being a business person who knew how to fix problems, could figure out how to get the tax back in place. Then again maybe running around downtown with his new toys just does not give him enough time to do such!
I just watched the July 11 Commish meeting and if there is ever a way to save a ton of money is to get rid of three commish and elect one person to be the executive of the county.
It frustrates me too! I live outside the City Limits in Allen County.
How many elected members that represent City and/ or Allen County actually live outside the City Limits?
Yes, taxation representation is all about the City’s needs. Because if you live in the City of Fort Wayne then you live in Allen County. Yet I see in a different manner. Where’s the County Representation for Huntertown, Aboite, Leo, Cedarville, Roanoke, ect.
To say, I live in Allen County outside the City limits, is to say their is a void in leadership without representation in many communities.