In the realm of politics, it is not often that absolute certainty will make an appearance in issues or problems that arise. Politicians find endless ways to argue the minutia of an issue. So when the hard sciences of math, physics or chemistry show up in politics the results can be harsh.
Winfield is faced with a budget problem. We need to go to referendum for a $3.3 Million rehabilitation of our neglected roads. Then, every year after that, our new budget needs to accommodate $705 Thousand for yearly maintenance to keep us on a 15 year road replacement cycle.
Budgeting for the roads is not difficult math to understand. It is known widely by competent village managers and village engineers that asphalt needs to be rehabbed or replaced every 15 years. Thus, easy math states that one needs to determine the cost for replacing all the roads in a town, divide that by 15 and budget for that amount every year.
In addition, because asphalt is made with crude oil (a volatile commodity) the budget needs to account for inflation and adjust accordingly.
It is interesting to note that the dollars identified to fix this problem are actually pointers to how the budget got so far off track. The yearly amount that the village needs for maintenance ($705,000) divided into the up-front amount that the village wants from us ($3.3 Million) equals 4.68. In other words, 4.68 is the cumulative number of years that maintenance was deferred on our roads.
Thus, for about the past 5 years, it should have been crystal-clear to the village board and the finance committee, that we were under-budgeting for our road maintenance.
The only question left to ask is which elected officials have been sitting on the village board and the finance committee and for how long?
Deborah Birutis –Current Village President has been a member of the Finance Committee all 5 years she has been a board member and was the Finance Committee Chairman for 4 years,
Jack Bajor – Has sat on the Finance Committee for 1 Year and has been a Village Trustee for 5 years.
Glen VadeBonCour – Has been a member of the Finance Committee for 3 years, is the current Finance Committee Chairman and has been a Village Trustee for 3 years.
Recent Comments