McCleary council asked to consider tax/tab hike

Car tabs or sales tax increase would fund repair of ailing roads

With city streets pocked and rumbly, the City of McCleary is eyeing a potential increase to either taxes or car tabs on residents to smooth the road ahead.

“We’ve been trying to budget, in the past, $10,000 to $13,000 to fix asphalt — we have a road system in town that I think everyone knows is in the hopper,” Mayor Brent Schiller explained. “It’s just getting worse.”

The city is considering establishing a transportation benefit district. That would allow the city to collect either additional sales tax or additional car tabs. The funding would be allocated specifically for street repair.

“We’re trying to come up with revenue sources that would actually help,” Schiller said. “Yeah, it goes after the taxpayer… we want to keep this as a dedicated fund just for the streets.”

If the city establishes a transportation district and pursues car tab fees, the city can independently establish a car tab fee of up to $20 for McCleary residents. If the city chooses to pursue a sales tax, that would have to be approved by voters.

According to public works director Todd Baun a very rough estimate shows the city collecting $50,000 to $60,000 from increased car tabs, or $18,000 to $20,000 for increased sales tax.

With the car tab funding, the city could potentially overlay a couple blocks, or fund some 2,000 feet of chip seal.

The city could not afford to repave large swaths of streets with that funding increase, but it can start a maintenance routine, Baun and Schiller agreed. And in order to have a transportation district, the city must have a streets plan it follows.

“We can preserve what we have, which isn’t very good,” the Mayor said.

While that may not seem like a lot, it’s imperative that the city rehabilitates its ailing streets in order to receive funding in the future, Baun said.

“The Federal Highway Commission is now changing their philosophy from repairing roads that have disrepair — they are now not going to give money for that, they are going to give money for agencies that maintain their roads,” Baun said. “They figured that money is better spent on maintained roads.”

The council took no action.