Road Cost

Chardon Township:

Miles of township road -- 36.15

Taxes spent per mile -- $15,503

Taxes per household -- ~$360

Bainbridge Township:

Miles of township road -- 84.54

Taxes spent per mile -- $38,469

Taxes per household -- ~$951

Auburn Township:

Miles of township road -- 55.27

Taxes spent per mile -- $32,314

Taxes per household -- ~$925

Most people aren't aware how much it costs to build and maintain roads. You basically pay a subscription per year to build and maintain roads to local, state, and federal agencies. If you're a property tax payer, you can see where your taxes go at the local level to keep the roads going because the townships report on all that stuff--you can look it up pretty easily. One interesting aspect of road cost, and infrastructure cost in general is it varies wildly by location.

In my township (Chardon Township, Geauga  County) the roads cost about $15,000 per mile per year. The township collects a portion of gas and license plate tax paid through the state, then gets the majority of its funding through property taxes. The aggregate taxes per household are about $360 per year. Our township roads are pretty crappy, but that's fine with me and most people here apparently because they never pass road levies.

On the southern side of the county, the townships of Auburn and Bainbridge have higher property taxes to pay for their roads for some reason. It's basically 2-3 times the cost per mile and household. The roads are not really 2-3x better. I rode my bike through Auburn a few months ago and several miles of their roads are still chip and tar light duty country roads.

I wonder how much people would volunteer to pay if it were a conscious choice. Would people sign up for $1000/year subscription for roads for their household paid per year every year? Would they prioritize that over their Amazon prime and Hulu Subscriptions? Taxes are generally structured so it's not an up front, "in your face" cost.

One of the problems of building out lots of infrastructure in any place is it's in effect a perpetual "debt" for lack of better word. Regardless of economic circumstances, people in an area will be on the hook to keep paying to maintain the infrastructure.