The respective leaders of Clinton and DeWitt County roads departments say the state's announcement to withhold their motor fuel tax funds is not going to have a great deal of impact initially, though that's not to say things won't change

Mark Mathon is the DeWitt County Highway Engineer and Steve Lobb is the Clinton Public Works Director. Both say the announcement by the State won't have an impact in the short term, but Lobb says, that may effect them going into next year.

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Mathon says they are fortunate the County has built up a fund balance to match funds on a federal project, however, if motor fuel tax moneys don’t' begin to come in starting next year, they may be looking at drawing from that fund to make up the difference.

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The lack of a budget and the uncertainty of those funds is making future budgeting and planning very difficult. According to Mathon, they will soon begin their planning for next year and he says without knowing what the status of that money is, they are just going to budget as usual and hope to receive that money in a timely fashion.

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Lobb indicates they will budget for next year like they are getting those funds as usual. However, he says if for some reason they don't receive that money, there will be projects that get put on hold.

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Mathon indicates the motor fuel tax money from a County standpoint gets used for general maintenance work. He says for townships, if they don't have money for targeted projects by February or March, they won't be taking those on.

Lobb explains the motor fuel tax funds for Clinton tend to be used for secondary streets projects.

Mathon also adds, motor fuel tax funds have significantly decreased over the last several years, greatly effecting the amount of work and projects they are able to give to community roads.