Roads and Taxes

Stade is a town just west of Hamburg, in the far north of Germany.  Population?  Around 45,000....more or less. It's been conquered a couple of times...by the Danes, the Swedes, and eventually by the Prussians. It came up in the news this week.

There is a main 'drag' that leads into the town from the north.  Schölischer Straße (street) is the name. Folks around town had complained about the condition of the road, and it needed a rebuild.  It's roughly a two to three mile run with the street.

 Folks would say that thousands of folks make their way from north of Stade, through the urban area....heading east toward Hamburg. 

So, after the renovation work was done....the bill came to the folks along this street.  You see, this wasn't split out among the entire town itself.  Most folks got a bill of 5,000 to 10,000 Euro, which got folks a bit disturbed.  The more property that you owned....the more hefty was the bill. Because the city limits extends out on this street....along farm-land....those folks got a bigger bill (over 100,000 Euro). 

In the beginning....no one explained to the town's folks that this was a 9.5 million Euro renovation job.  Most would have asked what the heck was going on, and that the lofty renovation adventure was way beyond what they would agree upon.  But these meetings came and went without anyone really challenging the mayor or city council.

From the Focus article, one old German guy (96 years old) has a bill for 100,000 Euro.  He'll basically end up having to sell his property to pay the bill.  Whether this adventure was designed to force home/property sales might be a curious thing to ask.

I looked over a BILD story that connects to the town.  They say between six and seven thousand vehicles transit this road daily.  It'd seem like you'd just put up a toll-booth and charge 30 cents each time they passed and make the money up in five or six years.  But the mayor and council probably don't want a toll-situation.

Another individual mentioned in the 100,000 Euro range was the local hotel owner.

What happens now? I'm guessing everyone is hyped up to have an election and vote the 'bums' out. But fixing this?  You'd have to force the town into some bank loan and then force everyone in the town to participate in this episode.  Then you'd have people attending every single meeting for the next twenty years and asking questions over the budget....why construction costs are so high....and forcing the city council to lightly spend.

If this were the US...you'd call up the state and ask for an audit over the expenditures of the city, and if there were some corruption factor in the 9.5 million Euro contract.