Polk County’s road wish list includes 66 projects totaling $450 million.
But what isn’t on that five-year plan tells the bigger story about the county’s transportation shortcomings: There are 99 unfunded projects totaling a whopping $1.4 billion, according to budget documents.
There just isn’t enough money in the county’s coffers to address all of the needs, said Bill Skelton, the county’s project management liaison.
“Growth is outpacing our ability to meet the traffic demands,” said Skelton “We are doing what we can.”
Is chipping away at the needs little by little enough, or should the county explore other revenue sources to fund more projects faster?
In recent meetings, one commissioner has proposed another sales tax referendum aimed at fixing roads — six years after the last effort faltered. Another inquired about the possibility of taking out a loan to quickly pay for needs, which would put the county further in debt.
But at least one commissioner says the best solution has little to do with the county’s budget.
While he has yet to bring it up publicly in a meeting, Commissioner Bill Braswell told them it’s time for the county to consider a moratorium on residential growth.
“We have plenty of roads, that’s not the problem,” he said in an email. “The problem is too many cars. The only way to fix that is to reduce the number of cars on the road, and the only way to do that is to limit growth.