Here’s something interesting.

The City of Peoria recently voted to annex 715 acres of land — the largest annexation since Peoria added Richwoods Township to the city. Developers are planning to create new subdivisions on this property that will eventually add a total of 1,408 dwelling units. As of June 2004, it was reported that there are 41,300 households in the city. Adding 1,408 more is an increase of 3.4%.

The 2006 budget calls for the city to spend $56,029,955 on police, fire, and public works combined. If we assume that those costs will need to increase by the same percentage as the number of dwelling units/households, we can times that figure by 3.4%. The result? $1,905,018.47. We can call it $1.9 million for easy reference.

Will this new addition to the city pay for itself? According to the city’s study, the new dwelling units will have a market value of $450 million (that would be an average of $319,600 per dwelling unit, incidentally), and this would result in an increase in tax revenue of — are you ready for this? — $1.9 million.

So, theoretically, it will break even from a city-services perspective. That means it will not give the city any net gain. It also won’t help us put a truck back into service at Fire Station 11. And it won’t do District 150 any good, but will infuse Dunlap School District 323 with lots of property tax money.

When will the city learn that we cannot annex ourselves into prosperity? We’ve tried. Over and over. And over. It doesn’t work.