County policy doesn't add up

I can’t stop thinking about the article I wrote last week about how a 30-year-old county policy prohibits county maintenance of all roads built after 1983.

The reasons for passing the policy made sense at the time; the Flathead Valley had a large population boom and was unable to keep up with it. But over time the population continued to grow, sometimes dramatically and sometimes gradually and that is where logic goes out the door.

How much of a tax base does the county need in order to expand road maintenance?

Particularly when in close vicinity to schools and on steep inclines such as Adams St. in Lakeside, the road that sparked the article in last week’s edition.

I understand that nobody wants taxes to increase. But with more people chipping in, couldn’t we afford a larger pie?

I’ll use a pizza analogy for this one.

When I was in college my roommates and I would do pizza and movies about once a week with just the four of us. If we each chipped in $5 we could get a large pizza and buffalo wings, just enough for all of us to get our fill.

Over time the gunshots, laughing and cheering that came from introducing our Japanese and Korean roommates to Clint Eastwood and Gene Wilder classics started to draw a crowd. The four girls in the room next-door to us joined in and suddenly a large pizza and buffalo wings wasn’t enough to go around.

The following week, all eight of us chipped in $5 each and got two large pizzas and two orders of buffalo wings and everyone was full. Note that the individual cost didn’t go up even though our tiny dorm room’s movie night population doubled, just like it has for Flathead County since 1983.

But that’s simple math, let’s get into the more complicated stuff where variables are at play just like the county’s road conflict.

It’s no secret that the county’s population and sources of revenue fluctuate. We have seasonal residents, people who move here for a year and get scared away by the weather, the wildlife, or boredom due to lack of outdoor appreciation. Additionally, tourist seasons can change with the weather right along with the economy as a whole. The price of fuel goes up, and suddenly so does the price of maintaining the roads.

I believe the pizza analogy holds true, even with the variables factored in.

As the year progressed, our pizza and movie night drew a larger crowd and we found ourselves with upwards of 25 hungry college kids crammed into a 12-by-12-foot room huddled around my little 23-inch TV. We ultimately moved the whole operation into the massive Rec room on the ground floor, and within a few weeks we had the majority of the building’s residence joining in, still at $5 each.

Now for the variables.

I’m a 6-foot tall athlete so I ate more than the 5-foot tall Chinese girls on diets, but we all paid $5. Similarly, I pay the same amount for road maintenance as someone who lives near the Swan Range; but I live near the lake and don’t see as much snowfall on my road as they do and we each are entitled to well maintained roads.

The difference is my road needs less attention than theirs, just like the girls’ appetites were satisfied with less pizza.

So my questions is, if we’re all paying the same amount and there are a lot more of us chipping in today than there were in 1983, then why can’t we all be satisfied?