Evidently WJBC isn’t doing podcasts today – no Karch interview available.
By: Diane Benjamin
Kevin Lower ran for mayor on fixing the streets. Tari did too but, but unlike Lower – Tari wasn’t telling you the truth.
This morning, Public Works director Jim Karch was on WJBC. The ONLY money Bloomington is spending on streets is what Tari got by raising your taxes: Motor Fuel Tax and 1/4% of the Sales Tax increase.
All those other taxes you pay expecting them to go to essential services – like roads – don’t.
Money previously spent on roads from the taxes already collected is conveniently diverted elsewhere.
Karch claimed his department could handle around $8,000,000 a year to fix the roads. Instead, the City is giving him $3.8. That is just enough to keep the roads in poor condition.
Refer back to this story: https://blnnews.com/2017/05/16/the-media-must-have-left-early/
The plan is to spend a lot of money in 2018 and tons more in 2020. Why?
Because the next local elections are early in 2019 and 2021. Voters will be programmed to think the current Council and Tari Renner are doing a great job!
In reality both are keeping the roads poor so they can look like heroes later. Some roads will be better, but most will remain pothole alignment and tire killers.
The voters that sit out local elections do so because they are manipulated to stay home.
When WJBC posts the podcast, I will add it here. I hope Jim doesn’t get fired for telling the truth!
I wouldn’t be surprised if Karch finds another job. How can he succeed if he’s always being underfunded?
PROOF: Next time you’re in the auto repair store-Napa, Auto Zone, etc, ASK them HOW MANY ball joints, Tie rods, and stuff of that nature that folks here are buying! It WILL amaze you!! I bought ones with a LIFETIME guarantee, and have gotten TWO new ones-FREE already, so Tari IS creating jobs-at the parts manufacturers!
Yes this is the Renner Regimes idea of economic development.
Karch is a good man in a tough spot working for an ego like Renner and his minions.
I agree. He answers emails and tells the truth. the rest have a problem with FOIA requests.
I’m relying on memory, so I stand to be corrected. This goes back to August of 2013. After spending nothing on road maintenance for several years, the council passed a resolution committing to spend a minimum of 4 million a year on the roads (from the general fund). The council then passed the gasoline tax which generated revenue to fund a 5 year 10 million bond which would add 4 million per year for a couple of years. The Pantagraph had headlines proclaiming 8 million a year available for road maintenance. The 4 million from the general fund was quickly removed from the plan. I believe Jim Fruin stated that he would only agree to the removal if if it was reinstated the following year (it never was). Comment was made at the following mayor’s Friday meeting (chaired by Karen Schmidt) that what the mayor had done was to create a 4 million dollar slush fund to fund his priorities. Net result of all this was 2 years of road maintenance paid for over 5 years. Next came the 1/4 % sales tax increase which is intended to be used to fund a 20 to 30 million bond (to be paid back over an extended period.. 15 to 20 years?) which will provide road maintenance for 5 to 6 years. As Johnny Cash put it in the song “16 Tons”… “Another day older and deeper in debt”. Moral of the story ….. ELECTIONS HAVE CONSEQUENCES.
Your memory serves you well. A few years ago, 2013, infrastructure was claimed as the #1 priority. Now, economic development has replaced it and infrastructure has moved to #3 of 5. With the downtown task force poised to have their goals in place prior to the next budget cycle roads will drop further down the priority list unless the $$ is used downtown, for bike lanes and for brick streets.
“16 Tons”, look up Tennessee Ernie Ford.
What really annoys me is when they DO “fix” the roads it is never done RIGHT. A friend of mine from UK who KNOWS road construction told me one time when she was visiting that the reason our streets are such a mess is the composition they are using, she said it is “programmed to fail” and rather quickly (she said this about the highways in Illinois and the city streets in BloNo) – she said if they would put the proper surfaces on these roads they would hold up for YEARS, but they don’t. They use cheap inferior mixes and thus they start deteriorating again in a short time. She said all it does is ensure constant work for road construction and gives people something to focus on that they can actually see, because of this, the city can always use “the streets” as a way to ask for more money, and yet, the roads are NEVER REALLY fixed properly thus keeping the never ending cycle going. I have a feeling she is “spot on”. I am also sure all of the “powers that be” would deny this vehemently.
There is another angle to look at. Taxes will be raised in the non-election years to provide revenue for bonds to improve the roads. Voters have a short memory and forget about the tax increases.