It's been a brutally harsh winter with a lot of snow and unyielding bitter temperatures.

As a result, it has been an expensive winter.Surely your heating bills have been a huge burden on your family budget more this year than probably any other in memory. For schools, businesses, and municipalities, those heating bills also impacted budgets.In addition, for municipalities, there was the high cost for anti-skid materials, snow plowing, snow removal, and equipment maintenance.There isn't a budget anywhere that hasn't been impacted negatively.And the expenses haven't ended.As soon as some warmer temperatures come, there will be more work needed to repair the damages the wrath of winter has incurred.Just as it was one of the worst years in memory for the cold and the snow, it's also one of the most vicious ever for potholes.Virtually any road on which you travel will have large craters, some of them even dangerous to your safety and your vehicles.Every municipality, large and small, is going to have to address the problem.There will be more maintenance required on equipment that was pushed beyond their limit to keep highways passable. In some cases plows will have to be replaced. Trucks will need repairs.This holds true for personal vehicles, too, many which sustained mechanical problems such as damage to wheel alignments.Hopefully, our elected officials keep this in mind over the forthcoming months and go as easy as possible on spending in general. There's nothing they can do about the havoc winter has created, but this means they might have to make sacrifices to other budgeted items.Here is where the test of leadership will be displayed. The political officials who review their budgets and make adjustments to cover the winter damages, and adjusting it to their overall budgets, are the ones who truly are working for their constituents' behalf.It's been a difficult winter.Let's hope officials do their best to make sure that the financial woes created don't continue to haunt us.Many people have drained their bank accounts to pay for heat and the other expenses that came with the winter season.They certainly don't need poor decisions by political leaders to add to the burden through higher taxes or expenditures that their respective municipalities can't afford.Potholes and other problems need to be addressed immediately. Other wish lists in municipalities might just have to be put on hold for another year.By RON GOWERrgower@tnonline.com