The Battle for the Benton County Roads
Kennewick business leaders protest a county road project, arguing that their tax dollars are being diverted to build infrastructure in empty, undeveloped territory.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
At the regular meeting of the county commissioners on Tuesday, bids for the Biggam-Benton City road were held up and the matter deferred until the September meeting. At the April meeting, the commissioners voted to appropriate $12,000 from the general road and bridge fund to build the road and to advertise for bids. Tuesday, a delegation from the Kennewick Commercial Club appeared before the board and entered a formal protest against the proposed expenditure. Those present included Geo. F. Richardson, M. W. Mattecheck, E. W. Trenbath, Grant Stewart, and L. E. Johnson.
The argument advanced in protest was that conditions did not justify the expenditure. It was pointed out that the road is to be built into undeveloped territory to serve a population which is not there now; that the engineer's estimate exceeds the appropriation by several thousand dollars; and finally, that the money could be used to much better advantage in road building in other sections of the county where people actually live. The protest was based primarily on the grounds that the East end of the county has been paying the lion's share of the taxes while receiving less than its fair share of road money. Figures were submitted to show that the Kennewick district has been paying 40 percent of the taxes to Prosser's 29 percent, yet the Prosser district has received more in infrastructure spending.
'It is just like this,' said Geo. F. Richardson, spokesman for the delegation: 'Our farmers have been digging up road taxes year after year and patiently waiting, worrying along over the roads that never had a dollar of county money expended on them. Now it is proposed to take $12,000 which rightfully belongs to the taxpayers in the East end of the county and blast a road through rock cliffs to serve a population that hasn't come yet.' Although residents from Benton City urged that the contract be let, the commissioners were inclined to look upon the protest as well grounded and voted to defer the matter.
“Now it is proposed to take $12,000 which rightfully belongs to the taxpayers in the East end of the county and blast a road through rock cliffs to serve a population that hasn't come yet.”
The tension between 'growth machine' boosterism—building infrastructure in hopes of future residents—and the existing taxpayers footing the bill remains a core conflict in local government today. Kennewick’s fight against 'development at any cost' in 1914 echoes contemporary debates over urban growth boundaries and tax-increment financing.
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