Sunday, August 29, 1999
Street paving goals not met, report shows
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Claire Rumpke complained for five years about the potholes and cracks on Seymour Avenue, her home in Carthage, before it was repaved this summer.
She is relieved the city finally acted, but she can name a dozen bumpy streets that are being ignored. “Maybe we buy the cheap blacktop,” she said.
A new city report shows that 55 percent of city streets are in good or excellent condition, compared with 66 percent in 1993. The backsliding is especially egregious, some say, because city voters taxed themselves in 1988 to fix the problem.
An increase of 0.1 percent in the city's earnings tax was supposed to ensure that 185 lane miles a year were repaved; in 1998, pavers resurfaced 36 miles.
“The city has broken its promise to the citizens,” said Charlie Luken, a former mayor who is running for council again. He was one of the leaders for the 1988 tax increase.
City Engineer Prem Garg said the city has never met the 185-mile goal. The infrastructure tax has not kept up with costs, he said. Last year, the tax raised $55 million of $77.7 million budgeted for such projects. Of that, $4.4 million went to repaving.
The infrastructure budget is used for renovating parks, automating traffic lights and more, Mr. Garg said.
City Councilman Todd Portune said too much of the infrastructure tax is spent on operating costs. He said Satur day that he will introduce legislation to limit spending to “bricks and mortar.”
He will also call for city administrators to revisit the budget immediately to address infrastructure spending, instead of waiting for the usual review at year's end. Council meets again Sept. 8.
Council member Phil Heimlich said council members have spent too much on pet projects and have forgotten about basics.
In January, council members tacked $14.6 million onto the city's 1999-2000 biennial budget. It included 48 spending items, from temporary housing for the homeless to equipment for a gym for chubby children.
But council member Paul Booth said the problem is that the study that laid the foundation for the tax increase, the Smale Commission Report, was never brought up during budget discussions.
“These reports are done and then we set them aside,” Mr. Booth said. “We need to pull them out and dust them off.”
Potholes are rapidly becoming a campaign issue.
Mr. Luken, a Democrat, sent a letter this week to City Manager John Shirey calling for $20 million in street repairs in 2000.
Diane Goldsmith, a Republican candidate, said the city needs to get back to basics.
“There is something wrong with the budget process that these things aren't discussed,” she said.
Jane Anderson, a Democratic candidate, also wrote to Mr. Shirey. She is dismayed that the Smale Commission recommendations “have been so inadequately followed,” the letter said.
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