Commentary
Passage of road and bridge levy a wise investment: Lee Wilkinson
When you buy a car or truck, you want it to last. You maintain that vehicle by changing the oil, rotating the tires, adding coolant, adding washer fluid, etc. If you want to keep the car on the road, sometimes you replace the brakes, flush the transmission fluid, and other more expensive tasks.
We don’t like to spend our hard-earned money on brakes and tires, but we do want to continue to drive. We can’t afford to skip the maintenance and just buy a new car when this one wears out due to poor maintenance. If we are good with budgeting our money, we set some aside each month for car maintenance so that, when it comes time to fix something, we have the money to do it and we won’t have to suffer for it.
If we want our roads and bridges to last, we must maintain them. If we each set aside a few dollars each month, then we will be able to fix what needs fixed without taking a chunk out of the budget that was intended for something else.
Because the Citizens of Tiffin passed the Road and Bridge Levy, the City of Tiffin has been able to qualify for state and federal grant dollars. With the state and federal grant dollars, Tiffin has been able to triple the value of our investment to go towards maintaining our roads and bridges.
According to the US Census 2020, the median household income of Tiffin households was $45,603. For someone earning about $46,000, the Road and Bridge Levy is costing $105 per year or $9.58 per month. It seems like a wise investment to keep our 89 miles of roads and bridges well maintained.
The decision to invest this money was made by the citizens, not by the mayor or city council. That is where this decision belongs. It’s your city, it’s your government.
Lee Wilkinson is a candidate for mayor of Tiffin in the 2023 election. He can be reached via email at WilkinsonForMayor@gmail.com.
