By Dr. Patrick Jones
Road funding comes from three sources: federal, state, and local. Since Benton Franklin Trends focuses measuring activity that is amenable to local decisions, Trends indicator 9.4.2 focuses on the last source. More specifically, at the title explains, the focus is on local budgetary decisions on maintenance. In other words, new road construction undertaken by local jurisdictions is not covered by the measure.
In contrast to spending of local dollars by municipal governments in the greater Tri Cities on law enforcement, covered in the neighboring article of this issue, per capita spending here on local road maintenance lies considerably below the state average. In 2023, it amounted to $113 per person over all jurisdictions in the two counties. While local spending increased by nearly 50% from a decade ago, 2023 figures show the per capita local dollar statewide to be $151.
A good part of the reason for the current comparison: Local road maintenance expenditures in 2014 were relatively low to the state average, on a per capita basis. A decade later, they have caught up somewhat but not completely.
By a different measure, however, local government spending on road maintenance in the two counties has generally matched the state average. In 2023, it slightly exceeded it.
This view comes view the measure Expenditures per $1,000 of Personal Income. Per capita spending in any local jurisdiction may be below the state average if that community simply doesn’t have the income as the state average. But as a share of income, the comparison of local spending could look quite different. And a glance at either of the Trends’ two indicators on personal income: 3.1.1 Per Capita Personal Income or 3.1.2 Median Household Income, clearly shows that incomes here are below the state average and median.
Considering then the spend on road maintenance by local governments on a dollar basis, the conclusion is different than the one from a per capita comparison: Governments, and implicitly their residents, support road maintenance at least as strongly as statewide. For 2023, spending here was $2.2 for every thousand dollars of local income versus $2.1 for the state. While a decade ago, local spending trailed the state average a bit, in the past five years, spending on an income basis has been at a par with the state average.
One explanation of this relatively higher level of expenditures on an income basis might lie with the footprint of urban development here. As Trends indicator 5.2.5 reveals, population density in the three cities is relatively low. (The exception is Kennewick.) Outside of the largest urban centers, a population needs connecting local roads. The lower the population density, the larger the network.
Another explanation lies in the still strong rural character of the two counties. Good roads are essential for agricultural production. And rural tradition in the U.S. and undoubtedly here has emphasized the equity of connecting various corners of a county. The consequence of a strong network of roads lodged in a sparsely populated area: higher maintenance costs per person than would be the case if they were clustered in a densely populated, urban environment. Notably, the more sparsely populated of the two counties, Franklin, shows slightly higher expenditures than Benton County in 2023 – on both a per capita and an income basis.
Do the Tri Cities support local maintenance of its road network? On a per capita basis, not as much. On the more important income measure, the answer is just as much as its counterparts across the state.