Justin explains:

The goal is to demonstrate how those served (almost exclusively) by adjacent infrastructure have no way to pay for it when it comes time to replace/repair.

In this scenario, the neighborhood of about 22 properties pictured above was recently annexed by the City. In doing so, the City also took on their [dead-end] road, which was the County’s responsibility previously. It appears it was neglected for many years as it was ranked one of the worst in the road assessment performed by staff and engineer earlier this year. During the budget process last summer, Council directed Staff to create a roads plan (with no dedicated revenue source)... The “solution” for this particular road varied from grinding it up and leaving it as a dirt road to a full reconstruct with asphalt or concrete.

Staff suggested the cheapest fix (next to grinding up the whole thing and leaving it as a dirt road) which was to do a chip seal at a cost of about $40,000. It really isn’t a fix, mostly cosmetic (only lasts a few years) and doesn’t address base failure, etc. We couldn’t in good conscience recommend building a brand new road…

Even with the cheapest method selected, as you can see in the slide above, what stands out the most is the fact that the residents of that neighborhood would be paying for nearly 17 years for a fix that would last them MAYBE 5 to 7 years, and that’s if NO OTHER city services are provided during that same period. In other words, if we took all the property tax derived from those properties, and solely allocated them for the repayment of the repair of their road, it would take them 17 years to pay for it based on the current tax rate.

Why measure the project based only on the tax revenue of the homes adjacent to the street? Because it's a dead-end cul de sac. These residents are literally the only people using the road. And they can't hope to pay for it.

If it seems like insanity to propose a simple paving project that would require tax revenue for 2 to 3 times longer than the road would actually be in use for, realize that this model is in play in towns and cities nationwide — yours included. (Look up the tax values in your town and see for yourself.)

It's like getting a 15-year loan on a car that's so crappy it will probably only last 5 years. Or buying a phone with a 3-year payment plan when you know full well that you'll break or lose that phone within a year. Actually, it's like taking every penny you have each month and only spending it on that car loan or that phone payment, because remember, the numbers above are based on the assumption that all tax revenue from the homes on this street is going solely to pay for the road and not to pay for the many other things your tax revenue needs to cover (schools, police, fire, etc.)