At the Kosciusko County Council meeting on the evening of May 8, Kosciusko County Commissioner Ron Truex presented the council with some disturbing data.

“I’m once again coming to you guys to ask for money for the highway department,” he told the council. “We’ve got enough money to do about a third of what we need to do.”

“We’ve reached a point where we can either wish the roads will get better, or find a way to raise money,” continued Truex. “We need to come up with a source of revenue that the highway department can count on.”

Council president Robert Sanders acknowledged the issue, saying, “The band-aids we’ve been using have gotten smaller and the wounds have gotten a lot bigger.”

While the severe winter has left local roads in extremely rough shape, the highway department’s financial problem didn’t just suddenly pop it. Truex pointed out that Kosciusko County Highway Department Superintendent Scott Tilden issued a report in 2010 that his department was short on resources.

Due to a decrease in state highway tax revenue and an increase in material costs, the Kosciusko County Highway Department has been operating on a million dollar, or more, deficit since 2010.

“We didn’t suddenly realize we were short of money,” said Truex. “This has been documented for four years.”

Corroborating Tilden’s report, a recent assessment by Umbaugh, a financial advisor to governmental units in the Midwest, shows that the county as a whole could be facing a major financial deficit in the near future. Umbaugh’s report suggests that Kosciusko County government could be faced with a $3 million deficit by 2016.

As this news sank in, the council began throwing out ideas for increasing revenue. Truex and the council decided that it may finally be time to impose a wheel tax in Kosciusko County.

If the wheel tax was enacted by the end of June, the county would receive a portion of wheel tax revenue in 2015. By 2016, Kosciusko County would receive the full benefit of the wheel tax.

“I think we’ve done a very good job. Our departments have done well,” said Sanders. “We’ve held off on raising taxes for quite sometime.”

In other news, the council approved Judge Joe Sutton request to replace a bailiff at the same level and pay rate. Biomet’s abatement schedule was approved.

Dr. Paulette Saunders was reappointed to Warsaw Community Public Library Board of Trustees. John McDaniel was appointed to replace R.D. Jones on the Lakeland Regional Sewer District Board of Trustees.

Finally, a request by the highway department to use funds from the Louis Dreyfus TIF District near Claypool to repair a stretch of road from 700 South from 500 West to SR 15 was approved. The request was submitted at last month’s county council meeting.