Kennewick Faces Budget Cut for Local Roads
Legal wrangling with the county leaves city streets with a fraction of expected repair funds.
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.
Kennewick hoped to get $2,000 from the general road and bridge fund for expenditure on city streets, but will instead receive only $276.47. The state law provides that an incorporated town is entitled to 15 percent of all it pays into this fund. Mayor Richardson previously secured an appropriation, but the county attorney and attorney general ruled against the legality of such appropriations for anything but the current year. The commissioners rescinded the former order and limited the payout to this year's share. Meanwhile, the county prioritized $2,000 for the Hanford-White Bluffs road and $1,500 for the 'Swede Settlement' road near Prosser.
“Now you get it and now you don’t. That is what happened to the $2,000 which Kennewick hoped to get.”
Conflicts over road funding and the struggle of cities to secure a fair share of county or state tax revenue remain a staple of municipal politics in Washington State today.
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