10-23-2024, 11:11 AM
(10-22-2024, 07:26 PM)Maxmars Wrote: Thank you once, and thank you twice!
Inflating the account by an order of magnitude tells me almost everything I need to know about the source.
I would never impinge on your opinion, but I am very skeptical of the idea that "road maintenance" costs are properly evaluated when it comes to budgeting...
The maintenance costs are not rendered into taxes on a year to year basis... state government have been "paying for road maintenance" since forever... asking for increased billions and billions feels to me like someone in the world of contracts and contract management are making huge financial gains that have nothing directly to do with "road maintenance."
But that's just me being cynical, I suppose.
I can understand cynicism... I'm coming from an unusual viewpoint since I was a programmer and computer support specialist for a city government. I've seen the frustration with "why can't you fix the roads" on a personal basis -- and I've seen the actual spreadsheets of road inventory and the economic decisions that lead to the answer to "what roads do we fix right now?"
Municipal salaries aren't that high, as a rule. Decent, yes, and I'm grateful for my retirement plan from the City. Money gets bled from bad decisions, bad materials from contractors and a lot of things but in general this is no worse than any other business.
Weird things cause road problems, including the landscape. Here in Texas we've got "black clay", which causes huge foundation problems and isn't kind to roads, sidewalks, or house foundations.
Ah... budgets are interesting. I haven't looked at my city's budget in many years, but I come from an experience where I can understand what's going on in government and how things work as an insider (who was kind of an outsider, because geeks are considered just... weird.)
