LETTER FROM THE EDITOR 9/15/08
SMALL TOWN AMERICA GETTING HIT
When I moved to the small Utah town of Taylorsville in 1990, it was mostly empty fields and small farms. Then isolated subdivisions began sprouting like mushrooms connected by strip malls, and soon the horses and cows were gone, the roads were widened, and Taylorsville incorporated and became a city, like thousands of other small town cities in America.
I remember the pride when our first big city project was finished; a huge recreation area with picnic pavilions and a fenced dog park. The whole community came to the celebration. We felt more pride when our local police force was formed, people smiled and waved when the brightly colored cop cars drove by, we knew these cops, they lived in our neighborhoods. There was money to hire them and buy their cars and uniforms and guns. There was money to build a city hall.
We liked our city; it was a good place to live, just like so many other small towns across the country.
When Russ Wall became the mayor a few years ago, he came in happy. Taylorsville had grown to 66,000 residents; the fifth largest city in Salt Lake County. It had enough money coming in to keep delivering new roads for new subdivisions and new police cars and computers and to meticulously maintain everything.
Then the economy went SPLAT.
Today, Mayor Wall is not so happy. He's in the same position so many mayors of so many small towns across America are in: the growth has slowed, the money coming in has slowed. The good times are over.
"We have only two choices: increase taxes or cut services. It's that simple," says Wall.
He knows it's a lose-lose situation. "There's no way to win with just those two choices," he says.
No matter what city officials decide, some residents will be angry. Many have already called Mayor Wall. They are already arguing at council meetings about what should or should not be cut.
Mayor Wall shakes his head when he talks about the costs to the city of doing business. "All a city does is provide services. We don't have any widgets for sale, all we do is provide services. If we can't provide as much basic services, the quality of life goes down for our constituents."
And he is Everymayor, of every small town in America, all of whom are facing the same hard, no-win choices. He may specifically mean Taylorsville, but his words apply to all small towns everywhere when he says, "Desperation is a harsh word, but municipalities are always on the edge. We never have large sums of money sitting around, our budgets go from year to year. Budgets are based on the economy, and that should be a concern to people."
What small towns are experiencing is the new buzzword: 'Casade Principal.'
An example of the cascade principal: Most of the money for roads comes from gas taxes, which are a set figure. As people get hit by the economy, they buy less gas. That means fewer dollars come in to maintain or build roads. Since road work creates jobs, if there are fewer road repairs, there are fewer jobs, so there's also less money coming in from taxes on wages.
Meanwhile, it costs more to build things like roads. Wall says, "Construction costs have incresed by 30 percent over the last three or four years, so when we get around to doing a project, it now costs more than originally budgeted for, so you have to come up with more money. It's not just the inflationary thing the average citizen faces, it's fuel increases, electricity, all those increases that hit cities, that we also must pay collectively as a community."
And as a city. What Taylorsville faces are the same increased costs that all small town cities are trying to deal with, all over America, trying not to raise taxes but seeing no other choice, wondering if even more tax money will cover everything. Wall says, "I'm optimistic that things will work out. But I don't know if I see any answers on the horizon at all."
His voice drops almost to a whisper as he admits what he and many other small town mayors are thinking, "It's constantly on our minds, the council and myself. I lie awake at night and worry about it. I have to worry about that. I worry about it a lot."
Wina Sturgeon, Editor