CARS
Well-known member
Seems to be a common thing these days, the city municipality is screwing the tax payer... again.
The state "turned over" the highway in front of my shop to the county. The repaving was sub contracted out to a local company and was over $100,000.00 under what the state had paid the county to do the work. That is great. The extra funds will just go to other county projects.
As long as the road was being tore up the city figured it would be a good time to update the infrastructure. New sewer, water, hydrants, etc. This is all to be paid with taxpayer money/utility bills. That too is all fine.
The problem is with the curb and gutter. I've talked to the county a few times over the last couple months. Curb and gutter is figured into the bid for the highway re-paving BUT the city is going to assess the curb and gutter to each property owners taxes! So it doesn't cost the city a damn thing, but yet they are going to charge roughly $1.00 a foot for curb and close to $3.00 a foot for driveway approaches.
Because the funding that the state got from the feds to give to the county when they took the hwy over came from some "special grant" or something like that there are even more stipulations on how things get done. For example, the maximum driveway approach width is 32'. My existing driveway is 46'. And while this doesn't apply to me, my neighbors across the road can't have 2 driveways like they currently do (think U shape).
Has anyone successfully sued their municipality? I think I can get 99% of the people who are affected by this on board. They aren't happy about this either but we never knew that the curb and gutter was in the road bid until recently when the county guys started talking.
Back in '98 we had a tornado go threw town and the city did the same thing. It took FEMA money for the city roads and added the curb and gutter to everyone's taxes. It was wrong to do then, and wrong now.
The state "turned over" the highway in front of my shop to the county. The repaving was sub contracted out to a local company and was over $100,000.00 under what the state had paid the county to do the work. That is great. The extra funds will just go to other county projects.
As long as the road was being tore up the city figured it would be a good time to update the infrastructure. New sewer, water, hydrants, etc. This is all to be paid with taxpayer money/utility bills. That too is all fine.
The problem is with the curb and gutter. I've talked to the county a few times over the last couple months. Curb and gutter is figured into the bid for the highway re-paving BUT the city is going to assess the curb and gutter to each property owners taxes! So it doesn't cost the city a damn thing, but yet they are going to charge roughly $1.00 a foot for curb and close to $3.00 a foot for driveway approaches.
Because the funding that the state got from the feds to give to the county when they took the hwy over came from some "special grant" or something like that there are even more stipulations on how things get done. For example, the maximum driveway approach width is 32'. My existing driveway is 46'. And while this doesn't apply to me, my neighbors across the road can't have 2 driveways like they currently do (think U shape).
Has anyone successfully sued their municipality? I think I can get 99% of the people who are affected by this on board. They aren't happy about this either but we never knew that the curb and gutter was in the road bid until recently when the county guys started talking.
Back in '98 we had a tornado go threw town and the city did the same thing. It took FEMA money for the city roads and added the curb and gutter to everyone's taxes. It was wrong to do then, and wrong now.
Government agencies are sometimes nuts.