There Ain't No Free Lunch

At least for Wilmington residents

Using the Wilmington median household income for 2013 of $30,000 as taxable income, the state income tax rate cuts reduced those households state income tax by $118 per year from 2010 rates.

The old axiom that there ain't no free lunch applies. In order to pay for the tax cuts the state had to decrease revenue sharing with cities and increase property taxes. These actions were added to another significant city revenue reduction action, the elimination of the estate tax.

The result of all this burden shifting from the state to the cities is, due to the reluctance of local government to ask their residents to make up for the lost tax revenue, a reduction in services and a deterioration of municipal infrastructure. Take a look at the local streets as verification. It would take a two mill property tax costing home owners around $70 per year to even begin to make up for the loss of state funds affecting streets.

Here's whats facing Wilminton in the near term:

Using ODOT’s  estimate of $500,000 total, including $250,000 city matching,

cost for the 1.25 mile Truesdell project next summer we can assume a cost per mile of at least $400,000 per mile.  Using that base data we should be able to obtain a rough estimate for other pending city only projects.

a. 1/2 of David’s Drive’s 3 miles = 1.5 X 400,000 = $600,000

b.  2 miles of Airborne Rd.s 3.25 miles = $800,000

c. 1 mile of of E. Locust not on ODOT’s schedule $400,000

d. 1/2 mile of S. South (from north end of new bridge to Truesdell) prior to ODOT’s 2018 scheduled repair $400,000

e. Other streets and alleys  not surveyed by this poster.

f. As much as $250,000 match for this year’s Truesdell project

g. As much as $645,000 for the 2018 S.South-Lorish-N. Lincoln (SR 134 N) ODOT project

I would request that before the naysayers protest, they do their own inspection drive around town.

Paul Hunter