Mayor will vote yes
Letter to the Editor of the Topeka Capital-Journal
Topeka, through its city government, provides basic services that private firms cannot reasonably render. They include police and fire protection, parks, a zoo and a Public Works Department to establish and maintain streets and sewers and to provide clean, safe water.
In recent years our streets, curbs, gutters and alleyways have deteriorated significantly and need to be repaired. The problem has been difficult to address for several reasons, including the loss of revenue from termination of two state programs that returned dollars to local governments, a phaseout of local authority to tax machinery and equipment and a dramatic increase in the cost of materials and labor for street repair. Additionally, the city council has been reluctant to increase local property taxes, and the city mill levy today is essentially the same as it was in 1998.
These are dollars that could be used for street repairs but are no longer available, and increased appropriations from the city’s general fund to public works cannot be made without reducing funding for other services. We should remember that much of the city’s $207 million budget is dedicated to specific purposes such as the operation of parks, the zoo, payment of debt, water operations, etc., and cannot be used for other purposes.
The funds available for street repairs come largely from the state collected gasoline tax and appropriations from the city’s general fund, where sales and property tax revenues are deposited. Those deposits total about $73 million annually and provide basic funding for the police department ($30 million), fire department ($20 million) and a transfer to public works of $10 million annually. That leaves $13 million to fund other programs and departments — information technology, purchasing, city attorney, etc. — while retaining a 10 percent ending balance as a reserve. But to reduce spending in any of these areas would not be wise.
So the first question before the council, as regards infrastructure repair, was simply this: Should we do something or should we do nothing? The council and I believed we needed to do something. The second question was how to pay for these repairs, and there were four options: raise property taxes, issue bonds, cut spending in other areas or raise our local sales tax by 0.5 percent.
They chose the sales tax option, 40 percent of which is paid for by persons who use our streets and other services but don’t reside here. They rejected issuing bonds (debt) because it more than doubles the cost of road projects, they rejected reductions in funding of other vital services and they rejected an increase in property taxes.
The tax can only be used “exclusively for cost of maintenance and improvements to existing streets, gutters, curbs, sidewalks, alleys and street lighting” and expires in 10 years. It will cost a family spending $800 per month on taxable items $4 a month.
No one is eager to raise taxes, but the problem must be addressed at some point in time and delaying it will not make it go away.
I’ll be voting yes on Tuesday.
BILL BUNTEN, Topeka mayor
Mayoral Candidates will VOTE NO
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Submitted by JWDO on Fri, 04/03/2009 - 12:35pm.
This is a post from Jon Welsey O Hara
It’s the issue of this election; the streets and the sales tax. I’ve made my position very clear, I feel, but I’d like to speak about this entire thing a bit more.
Let’s be completely honest about our situation here. Our streets are in an emergency state. The study done 3 years ago said we’ve got 30 million dollars of repairs to do, over 10 years. Costs have risen since then, I’m willing to say we need 100 million dollars, over 10 years, to bring our streets back. That’s 10 million dollars a year.
Our yearly city budget is 207 million dollars. According to individuals, only 70 million of those dollars is available for dissimination. 20 million to the fire department. 30 million to the police department. A mere 10 million to public works and 10 million scattered to various programs and what have you. As a nation, as a world, we are facing a severe recession, some say a depression. As a city,we’re facing an increasingly competative marketplace for new businesses and young business professionals.
We must repair our streets. The entirety of the Heartland Visioning process depends upon a fertile, versatile city from which it can grow. New businesses look to our streets and judge whether to bring their business to Topeka. You won’t find a single individual who disagrees with this: The state of our streets is horrendous. We must act and act immediately.
The city government has brought this sales tax question forth before the people, asking for more money to fund the repairs. I cannot stress just how strongly I disagree with this. Let me explain. It seems that every time you ask a person involved in city government about the sales tax, you get the same answer. If it is not approved by the voters, we will have to make cuts. Those cuts could come in the form of less police on the streets, less money for our fire department. You hear this from many people. This is nothing more than blackmail. Extortion of the voters for political gain. “Either you give us what we want, what we demand, or we take away your sense of safety, we cut the very people you depend upon in an emergency situation.” Those are hot button words. They’re meant to scare the voters into bankrolling a city government that has proven time and again to embrace wasteful spending, pet projects at the expense of the very basic necessities that this city requires. Those words anger me greatly. It preys upon fear and as I’ve said before, I will not live in fear. I will not play this game. If you cannot make your case without making thinly veiled threats to the voters, then you don’t have a strong enough case to bring forward.
Since I’ve spoken out about that language, there’s been another tactic used. City Councilman Jeff Preisner spoke of this at a forum held at Brewster Place. In regards to budget cuts and the sales tax, he spoke of cuts. He said those cuts would come from social services, the programs that help the less fortunate in our community, the lower economic classes. There’s the trap right there. This sales tax has the greatest negative impact upon the poor economic class. I myself am classified as being in that economic state. I speak as an individual who has had problems making ends meet and have had to sacrifice in order to meet the bills and keep food upon the table. Please understand that when I speak about this, I am coming from the position of a person very near the bottom looking up.
Topeka is sending a message to the lower economic classes with this vote. If you vote for the sales tax, you will have to spend more money on the basics of life. Food, clothing, the things we cannot live without. If you vote against the sales tax, then the social programs you may depend on, such as Meals on Wheels and other assistance programs, will be cut. Either way, if you’re poor, then it doesn’t matter how the vote turns out, you’ll end up with the short end of the stick.
That alone sickens me. That we would hold not just the safety and security of the populous as a whole over the heads of the voters, but to threaten the social programs, the very things that help keep families in food, clothing, the very basics of life, is abhorrant.
Here’s the question I would like you to ask yourself. Why are we here? What has happened these past 4, 6, 8 years to bring our streets to this state, where we are faced with this horrific choice? Where did the money we as taxpayers paid to have our streets maintained go? Who is responsible for the wasting of that money, who is responsible for removing it from our streets?
After you ask yourself that question, I’d like you to think about this one. Why are we being asked to approve a sales tax for street repair? I know, I know, because we need it. Our streets are horrific. I know that, but let me ask this another way; “Why are we being asked to approve a sales tax for our streets when it is a vital and essential responsibility of the city and not being asked for a sales tax to support the various sundries we spend tax dollars on?”
The Topeka Performing Arts Center, the Helen Hocker Theater, the Helicoper Program at the TPD. These are just a few examples of programs and things that recieve tax dollars yet are not essential. I am NOT saying that I do not support TPAC, the Helen Hocker Theater, (though I will say I do not support a new helicopter for the TPD), all I am saying is why are these programs, these entities getting tax dollars when we are in a grave situation with our streets?
We are constantly told we are in a budget crunch, that we need to buckle down, make the hard choices, and yet it seems that the hard choices are not being made in city government.
Why the sales tax for our streets? Here’s my answer. Because it’s the easy way to go. By making it for our streets, they have put the voters in a horrible position where they face a terrible choice. The city government wants this money and this is their way of making certain that they get it. They are gambling with our future, using blackmail to up the ante, so that we have no choice but to fold and give in to their demand. The downside? We’ve sent a message to the less fortunate in our city. We’re telling them that Topeka is not interested in them. Here’s something to think about. All those young business professionals we must have in order to survive and grow as a city? How many of them got their start at the bottom? How many future millionaires are out there right now on public assistance, just trying to make ends meet while they get their ideas off the ground in an unforgiving economic climate?
We’re sending a message that runs contrary to our goals. We’re telling the lower economic class that they are second class citizens in Topeka. We’re telling future leaders currently working their way up from the bottom that they aren’t as important as others. We are placing a burden upon the backs of people who simply cannot afford one more bad break. We’re telling businesses that this city government is willing to stoop to extortion in order to get what it wants. A city government that’s willing to place it’s most vulnerable citizens in an even worse situation in order to bail itself out. I’m voting against the sales tax. We need to repair our roads, but so much more importantly then that, we must send a message to our elected officials. We must tell them we will not allow ourselves to be bullied. We will not allow ourselves to be blackmailed. We will protect those most vulnerable citizens, we will not take way the police, the fire department that protects them. Stand up, Topeka. Make your voice heard, do not allow this travesty to continue. We can do better and it’s time we told our city government that we are no longer willing to settle.
http://www.myspace.com/jonfortopeka
Jon makes some interesting points - but offers no viable alternative for funding street repairs. Cutting TPAC and Helen Hocker would net less than $2 million. Sales tax is not the easy way to go. Nor is property tax, nor cuts or bonds. The easy way to go was our method of 10 years ago - with funding coming in from state sources and different taxes that have since been phased out. The money for street repair has been dwindling. How do you propose we correct this problem, when repairs will cost as much as $13 million a year? Have a look at the cost breakdown: http://www.fixtopekastreets.com/?p=152 - You won’t find any gaps in the City Budget big enough to fill these potholes.
Fix your own damn streets with your own damn money.
It’s only fair that everyone who uses the streets should help pay for their upkeep.