2015 toledo mayoral candidates have ideas to fix toledo's roads

Jun 16, 2015 - Toledo Blade - Likely mayoral hopefuls roll out ideas to fix roads - "Stop raiding capital improvements, some say; tax raise called last resort"

For politicians, "last resort" means implementing first, as soon as possible, even if the newly-raised money is not used for road repair.

From the Blade story:

[Mayor PH2] does not envision ending the practice of transferring money from the city’s capital improvements fund into the general fund anytime soon.

In 2010, the city took $7 million from the capital improvement fund created with revenue from the 0.75-percent temporary income tax that was originally earmarked for capital improvements to maintain city services.

From 2011 through 2014, the city took $14 million from the fund and this year, the borrowing from the capital budget is planned at $11 million.

PH2 is the only honest person, regarding the issue of transferring some money from the capital improvements fund to the general fund. The practice will not end. Remember, voters gave the city permission to raid the CIP.

... 2010, when Toledo voters agreed to allow one-third of the revenue from the 0.75-percent temporary income tax, which was previously earmarked for capital improvements, to be used for daily operations.

The voters spoke. If the practice of raiding the CIP ends, then the general fund has a financial hole, which will mean taxes, fees, and/or assessments will increase. But the politicians can say that they did not raise taxes to fix roads. They will have to raise taxes to fix their other incompetent areas.

Former Mayor Carty Finkbeiner had a two-pronged prescription: no capital improvements dollars for anything but road improvements starting as soon as 2016, and instituting a regional metropolitan government that would allow the county or region to help share the costs.

Czarty uses a two-pronged "prescription" to jab people.

Outlying communities should be worried whenever someone like Czarty suggests an idea related to regionalism/unigov and sharing costs. It simply means that Czarty wants other communities to pay for Toledo projects. Instead of raiding the CIP, it's better to raid other towns. Valid reasons exist why outlying communities do not trust Toledo officials. Maybe this is Czarty's way of getting back at the "Suburban Cabal" that caused Czarty not to seek re-election in 2009.