We are standing in the 2200 block of Royal Ave here in the

We are standing in the 2200 block of Royal Ave here in the Newberry section of
Williamsport. Royal Ave is in a residential area and it is a street that has seen no
rebuilding or major repairs in decades. Similar streets include Boyd, Lincoln and
Depot streets here in Newberry, Wilson St and Meade St in the East End, Locust,
Elmira and Walnut streets in the northern part of our city. And the list goes on.
Note the deterioration of the streets and the lack of curbing here. These people
pay taxes.
The mayor has told us our streets are “fine.”
neighborhood streets knows better.
Anyone riding on or driving our
There are several budget lines that focus on city street repairs and resurfacing.
The first is the Community Development Block Grant budget line. Neighborhoods
that benefit from street repairs using this money need to be “income eligible”.
These neighborhoods generally are south of High St, east of US 15 and west of
Market St. In the past 4 years we have spent $1.3 million on these streets. First,
Second, Third Avenues below High Street are examples. These are Federal dollars.
The next major line is from what we call the “General Fund”. These are your
property taxes. In the Mayor’s proposed budgets we funded $225,000 in 2012, $0
in 2013, $0 in 2014 and $0 in 2015.
Finally we have our “Impact fee” dollars… money that comes from the gas
companies. Money that can be used for street repairs if we choose. Mr.
Campana’s proposed budgets using impact fee dollars include $600,000 in 2013,
all used for Reach Road, $428,000 in 2014 and $0 in 2015.
The street reconstruction you will see in 2015 are either Community Development
Block Grant dollars (low income neighborhoods), or are impact fee dollars from
2014, money that was supposed to go into streets last year but, for one reason or
another the current administration was unable to get done last year.
We have a Mayor who tells us he has never signed a budget with a tax increase.
And yet he has spent every nickel of any tax hike he has received without ever
coming back the following year to propose a tax cut. And, in the last seven years
he has managed to spend all of the city’s $3,000,000 savings account leaving us
with nothing in the bank.
Where did all of this money go? Certainly not into street improvements.
As Mayor I will develop and implement a vigorous and aggressive street
reconstruction and improvement program. We will do a complete review of the
General Fund expenditures and move as much money as possible into street
reconstruction and repair. In addition we will focus our Impact Fee dollars into
street repairs and reconstruction. We will also focus on searching for and finding
any state or federal grants that can be used to rebuild our streets. This will be a
top priority.
The tax payers of this City should expect to get their money’s worth. They deserve
it.