Lately it has become more obvious to me that the signs of infrastructure decay in our area are becoming more noticeable. This summer it seems as though our local governments have made next to no effort to repair any of the potholes and road issues that are normally handled after each winter season. Of course we had the floods in September and they have taken most of the money available to our transportation departments and I can understand that but these issues should have been fixed this past April.

What worries me the most is that come this winter, we are going to be in really bad shape and our cars and wallets will feel every bump. But should they? I would argue that the tax rates are so high in our local areas that there is no reason for anyone to need to feel like they should worry about these types of problems. Yet we do worry about them and they seem to always be there, never getting resolved and never seeming to be a priority. What these systemic problems in infrastructure point to are the inefficiencies within our local, county and state governments. Since the local governments dont ever seem to work together, they all compete against each other rather than pooling resources for things like education and infrastructure to recognize economies of scale. In almost every business today, we are doing more with less and while that may not be a popular topic in the job market, it is the truth and a concept that our local governments havent gotten the hang of yet.

If the southern tier is ever going to improve our prospects and attract any investment, we must get out of our own way first. Without solid infrastructure, no business will ever move here, nor will any people. In turn this will mean fewer tax dollars will be raised and thus they cycle will repeat itself, dragging us further and further into the economic recession that has gripped this area since the early 1990s. How do we break the cycle? Move to a county centric government structure and get rid of this antiquated concept of every town having to fund its own police departments, schools, transportation departments, water departments, etc. The way we run things now is about the least efficient system that I can think of and it must change before things will get better. I look forward to the day that we start working together rather than simply perpetuating the vicious cycle that we have been in for decades.