City Can’T Get Fix On Pothole Problem Streets Need $50 Million Of Work

Spokane drivers had better brace themselves for bumpy roads.

A few patch jobs and mild weather last winter masked the fact that the city remains at least $50 million behind in road maintenance, officials say. Though winter doesn’t officially begin until this evening, frigid temperatures already have arrived with potholes sure to follow.

There’s no plan to catch up on road maintenance, city officials concede.

Earlier this year, City Council members named fixing the city’s streets as their top priority. But the 1999 spending plan they passed two weeks ago includes no new money for roads.

Voters have rejected proposals to raise taxes to provide more road money in each of the last two years.

Besides the $50 million backlog of resurfacing and repaving projects, an additional $7 million annually is needed to keep the roads in good condition.

Mayor John Talbott, who rode to office partly on the anger of an electorate fed up with crumbling roads, said he isn’t ready to push for more road money because he remains unconvinced of the city’s fiscal efficiency. That’s in spite of a recent independent review of operations that gave the city relatively good marks for managing taxpayer dollars.

Last month, Washington voters approved a ballot initiative that diverts some of the state surplus to road work. But Referendum 49 isn’t likely to rescue city streets, said Assistant City Manager Dave Mandyke.

Nearly all those dollars will go to state projects, Mandyke said, adding that the $150 million set aside for local governments in the governor’s proposed spending plan won’t mean much when spread across the state.

“It’s going to come down to not a lot of dollars,” Mandyke said.

City officials hope the state Legislature will give them a new tool to fix the problem. But even the possibilities - such as empowering the city to impose its own gas tax or license fee - pose problems, they say.

Spokane County commissioners already have the power to impose a $15 annual vehicle license fee, but they have declined to do so. Voter approval is needed to raise gas taxes countywide, but last year county voters crushed a proposal to increase the tax by 2.3 cents a gallon.

Giving cities greater taxing flexibility comes with potential problems, City Manager Bill Pupo said. A tax or fee in the city that isn’t in the county might encourage people to locate their home or business in an unincorporated area.

“We’ve got to be real careful of those sorts of things,” Pupo said.

City officials recently gained credibility with some voters who’d had their doubts about government spending. Don Herak, former owner of Acme Concrete, and John Stone, owner of John Stone Development, formed the Coalition for Good Roads. Their mission was clear: get the city’s roads fixed and keep them fixed.

The coalition proposed a management audit as a way of helping rebuild public confidence in government spending.

The group paid half the cost of a $50,000 audit of city operations. The results came back in October, with DMG Maximus officials saying the city did a credible job managing taxpayer money.

“I’m comfortable now that there’s no hidden money down there,” Herak said.

The group plans to move forward with an effort to fix the streets, likely with a gas tax, he said. “I would vote for a gas tax.”

But Herak said he could never support a property tax increase to pay for streets. “You may get a person who doesn’t even own a car,” he said.

Two years ago, voters seemed to share his concern, turning down a $37.3 million bond issue.

Despite the consulting firm’s review, Talbott said he isn’t ready to pursue any increased taxes to fix the roads. He said the report has done little to ease his concerns about how the city spends taxpayers’ money.

He wants an independent auditor on staff, full time, reporting directly to the council before he’ll push for any new taxes, he said.

“After that, I’ll hit the streets to support a bond issue, gasoline tax or city license for vehicles, a street user fee,” he said. “We’ve got to fix our streets.”

The need to address the backlog was declared an emergency two years ago by then-Mayor Jack Geraghty.

Since then, “we’re not any closer” to a long-term fix, said Councilman Jeff Colliton.

Right now, officials believe the road problem isn’t likely to be high on the public’s priority list. In late 1997, the city spent about $360,000 in unused snow-plowing money on thin overlays, spreading a layer of asphalt on Spokane’s worst roads. The quick fix isn’t expected to last more than two or three years, said Transportation Director Bruce Steele.

Council members also borrowed $2.66 million to fix five of the city’s most rutted streets.

The impression among residents is that the city fixed the streets, Colliton said. “We’d have a hard time convincing people there’s a problem. But I think if we have a real tough January and February, we could see the roads cracking again.”

Before asking residents for more money, the whole council needs to be convinced of the need, Colliton said. “The entire council has to say, ‘Look, the money isn’t there.”’ Pupo said the council plans a retreat in February, and streets will again be on the agenda.