Good Article

In today's Wall St Journal, there is a good article entitled "Governors Try to Convince Voters That Budget Woes Are Theirs, Too".

The best paragraph in the whole article reads 'The recession will force big changes, not all of which have materialized. "We have yet to see the public sector adapt in the way the private sector has," said Mr. Klepper-Smith, also the chief economist and director of research for DataCore Partners LLC. "We can't tax our way out of this problem. Many in local government have yet to appreciate the structural nature of this recession. The cuts have been superficial." '.

How true. Here at ACHD we've made some cuts, pushed projects into the future and used some accounting gimmicks to help cash flow, but we really have never spoken about anything structural in the organization. I think most everyone just hoped things would get better before tough decisions became necessary.

The State of Idaho is seeing a fairly large downturn in it's revenues which for now is $151 million or 3.6%. ACHD shares in the Highway Distribution fund - ACHD receives about $20 million/year. The gas tax makes up a large part of this fund in addition to registration fees, title fees etc. Fuel consumption is down because miles traveled are down and unemployment is up, yet ITD anticipates only a 1% decrease in money flowing to the Highway fund.

If it is a 1% reduction, then that is only $200,000 to ACHD. However, if it's 5%, then that is $1 million.

We would have been better prepared if we had actually taken note of the economic indicators this summer.