Battle Ground residents have paid a $20 fee when renewing or purchasing new vehicle tabs since July 2015, and city councilors will discuss the possibility of doubling that fee at Monday’s council meeting.
The fees go to the city’s transportation benefit district to fund local transportation projects.
“Most of it is general street maintenance,” City Manager Jeff Swanson said. “We have many, many miles of roads to maintain.”
Since establishing the transportation benefit district, the city collected $92,625 for the second half of 2015 and $245,750 in 2016, according to the city’s 2017-2018 biennial budget. City staff estimate the fee will bring in roughly $250,000 a year if the $20 fee stays. If the council votes to double the fee, city staff estimate it would double the amount collected, bringing in around $500,000 a year for road work.
Funds generated by the fee can be used only for transportation projects
Swanson said the city council has also discussed leaving the tab fee at $20 and adding a sales tax as part of the transportation benefit district. To go the sales tax route, the city would have to turn it over to a public vote for approval; to change the tab fee amount, the transportation benefit district just has to vote in favor of the change.
Most recently, Woodland tried to pass a vote for a 0.2 percent sales tax increase through a transportation benefit district in November, but the vote failed with 51.56 percent of people voting against it.
The council meeting is set for 6 p.m. Monday at City Hall, 109 S.W. First St., Battle Ground. Swanson said councilors will focus primarily on doubling the tab fee.
“All options are still on the table for them,” Swanson said. “At our meeting in January, they took a vote and directed staff to prepare an ordinance to increase the tab fees, and it’s that document that they’ll consider.”
Councilors have discussed raising the fee to $40 as a way to help the city deal with rising costs of maintaining roads and unfunded mandates, such as the American Disabilities Act. Swanson said city officials estimate it costing $100,000 a year to bring streets up to ADA code through things as curb cuts and updated crosswalks.
The city’s street fund for 2017 is $1.1 million, about the same as in 2016, which was up from about $953,000 in 2015. Most of the city’s street funding comes from the transportation benefit district and the fuel tax. The largest remaining amount of street funding comes from the city’s general fund. If the tab fee is raised, Swanson isn’t sure if the city will use less money from the general fund for streets.
“That’s up to the council on what they want to do,” he said. “(The added money) could be on top of (the current amount). It could relieve some of that general fund money.”
The transportation benefit district money mostly goes to road maintenance, such as crack and slurry sealing and striping, but Battle Ground’s money also goes partly to other transportation projects, Swanson said.
The biggest project this year is the South Parkway Improvement Project, which will be broken up into two sections. The portion from Main Street to Rasmussen Boulevard will receive a mill and fill, with the top few inches coming off in place of new asphalt. The portion from Rasmussen to Eaton Boulevard is more rural, so the project will reconstruct the street to include a center turn lane, bike lanes and sidewalks.
The $5.6 million project will use $65,000 from the transportation benefit district, which Swanson said the city did so it could go out to receive state matching funds for the project. The bid for the South Parkway project is expected to be announced at Monday’s meeting, with construction starting later this year.
