“You can pay me now or pay me later.” That’s what the auto mechanic said to the customer in that old FRAM oil filter commercial. Meaning, you can spend a little money now to protect your car’s engine, or you can neglect it and pay much more when the engine fails and must be rebuilt.

I see a strong connection to what the town’s expert street engineering consultant (IMS) warned about the money needed to keep our streets in reasonable condition. The consultant found that the current $2 million budget for street maintenance would result in an “unsustainable” 45 percent backlog within 10 years. The report states that even with $3.6 million in annual funding, the backlog remains “unmanageable” at 30 percent.

“Backlog” is defined as any street that is past the point of surface-based rehabilitation (relatively inexpensive) and instead requires deep rehab (very expensive). IMS reported that $1 spent on routine maintenance when the street is still in the good to excellent range saves spending $8 if the street is not maintained adequately and falls into poor or very poor condition – requiring major rehabilitation or complete replacement.

However, if a primary property tax is approved, the projection after 10 years using the proposed $6 million funding has a “manageable” backlog of 10 percent, according to the report. I don't know about you, but I get the oil and filters changed on my vehicles on a regular basis and they’ve kept running well past 100,000 miles.

Nobody likes paying more taxes. But I will be very unhappy if the property tax fails and I end up footing a far higher cost later. So what do you want to do? Pay now to keep our streets in good repair or spend eight times as much later?