The Road Commission for Oakland County (RCOC) presented its proposed fiscal year 2008 budget at a public hearing last night, Thursday, Aug. 23, at the Oakland County Board of Commissioners Auditorium in Pontiac.

The proposed 2008 budget, at $104 million, includes plans for $30.5 million worth of road improvements proposed to be built in 2008. The proposed budget represents a decrease of $5.5 million compared to the $109.5 million 2007 budget as adopted in September of last year. The proposed 2008 budget is lower than the 2007 budget primarily because RCOC expects to receive less state and federal funds, and therefore will undertake fewer road construction projects in 2008 than in 2007.

“Over the last year, we continued to find ways to work more efficiently and cut costs where possible,” Managing Director Brent Bair stated. “That strategy is continuing in the coming year and is reflected in this proposed budget. However, we are now at the point where insufficient funding is beginning to have a serious impact on our road system. In fact, in this budget, we are eliminating four positions that had been temporarily vacant,” Bair said.

RCOC’s fiscal year runs Oct. 1 to Sept. 30. Final adoption of the budget will take place in September

Included in the 2008 budget is the continued construction of the “Northwestern Connector” project. This project, intended to resolve the long-standing problem created by the ending of Northwestern Highway at Orchard Lake Road in West Bloomfield Twp., involves the construction of eight modern roundabouts along Orchard Lake, Maple and 14 Mile roads. The first two are being constructed this year at the intersections of Maple and Drake roads and Maple and Farmington roads.

Other major projects to be constructed in 2008 include: widening Walton Blvd, from west of Opdyke Road to Squirrel Road in Auburn Hills; replacing the Grand River Ave. bridge over Kent Lake in Lyon Township; and replacing the Cass Lake Road bridge over the Clinton River in Waterford Township.

The proposed budget represents a continued tightening of the belt for the agency for a variety of reasons. “The two largest sources of our operating revenues, the state-collected gas tax and vehicle registration fee, both remain stagnant,” Bair said. “In particular, with gas prices near an all-time high, people are driving less, further reducing gas tax revenues. Simply put, our revenues are not growing at the same rate as our expenses.”

Bair noted this is the revenue RCOC uses to pay for routine maintenance such as pothole patching, plowing and salting in the winter, gravel road grading, etc. “Unlike cities and villages, RCOC has no general fund or special road millages it can draw on when times are tough. We simply have to get by with the available funding from the state. Meanwhile, expenses, such as the costs of operating our fleet of large trucks (used for plowing snow, salting and filling potholes) continue to rise rapidly.”

In 2008, RCOC expects to receive about the same amount of state-collected road funding it received in 2003 and only slightly more than it received in 2000. Because of this, RCOC will perform the same amount of routine road maintenance activities it performed in 2007, which was reduced from previous years.

RCOC Board Chairman Larry P. Crake explained the proposed 2008 budget represents the agency’s efforts to cut costs wherever possible while impacting services as little as possible. “The Road Commission staff has examined every aspect of Road Commission operations to find places we can trim the budget. We have made every effort to save money without reducing services,” Crake stated.

Vice-Chairman Richard G. Skarritt added that the Board also insists that motorist safety cannot suffer due to funding restrictions. “Motorist safety is our top priority. While we want to reduce operating expenses as much as possible, we simply will not cut costs if it means reducing safety for Oakland’s residents and others who use RCOC roads.”

Commissioner Eric S. Wilson agreed. “We fully understand that we are charged by the public with using their money to accomplish the greatest good on the county road system. We take that responsibility very seriously,” he said.