Revenue shortfalls impact projects

RITZVILLE – The pandemic may be waning, but its effects are still being felt. At the Adams County commissioner’s meeting on September 20, Public Works Director Todd O’Brien discussed his department’s struggles.

He noted that fuel tax revenues have been roughly $1 million less than anticipated. This, in turn, has adversely impacted the county’s public works projects. That’s because vehicle fuel taxes provide the lion’s share of funds for road maintenance and preservation, he said.

Revenue losses started in early 2020 and haven’t fully recovered to 2019 numbers. “People are just driving less,” he said. “We’ve seen drastic drops in consumption throughout the state. We expected the numbers to rebound fairly quickly in 2021. They just haven’t.”

O’Brien noted that prior to the start of the pandemic, consumption growth trends were expected to be around 2-3% annually. Those numbers have not materialized.

The county has partially addressed revenue shortfalls by reductions in labor costs. “We’re down roughly 11 employees in the department,” he said. “That’s not where we want to be. We don’t have enough employees, so labor costs are less. That looks fine for the budget, but it also means we’re not getting work done.

“Over the last 18-24 months we’ve really focused on routine maintenance instead of maintenance improvements,” O’Brien said. Such improvements include paving gravel roads and widening highways.

Revenue shortfalls and labor shortages have forced the county to curtail such projects. “Even with an adequate number of employees, something would have to give,” he said. “If we get back to our previous funding levels, we still have the problem of tremendous cost inflation for concrete, gravel, and other materials.”

Of course, fuel costs have also skyrocketed.

The county hopes to address revenue shortfalls by lengthening project completion times and hiring more employees.

“We want to do the best we can with what we’ve got,” he said. “But that’s a lot less than we anticipated two years ago.”