The Tooele City Council passed a resolution Wednesday night to send out letters in support of a state-wide initiative to increase taxes for road maintenance.
Tooele City now joins dozens of other cities and townships in the state that have come together under the Utah League of Cities and Towns to exert pressure on the Utah Legislature to pass what they believe is a long-overdue funding increase.
Twenty years have passed since the last increase, said Tooele City Councilman Scott Wardle. Since then, he said, the state has shifted the burden of funding road maintenance to Utah cities, which are unable to keep pace with their communities’ needs because they cannot raise the needed funds themselves.
Wardle said the city currently has to take $1.4 million, or $43 per city resident, out of its general fund to make up for the city’s lack of roads maintenance money.
“We just don’t have enough money to do our roads,” he said.
The Utah League of Cities and Towns hasn’t proposed a specific solution to the problem, but has suggested the state adopt one of two methods: either an increase in the state sales tax equivalent to roughly a quarter of a cent per every dollar spent, or an increased gas tax equivalent to five cents per gallon.
Tooele City Council Chairman Brad Pratt said he favored the proposed sales tax increase, because it would benefit even the smallest towns without gas stations, and because the sales tax is projected to get more roads funding to municipalities.
According to documents distributed to the city council on Wednesday, the sales tax increase would provide Tooele City with an estimated $1.3 million in additional roads funding in 2015, while the gas tax increase would give Tooele City just $300,000 in additional funds.
The funds would be collected by the state and then added to the funds the state distributes each year to individual municipalities for roads maintenance. Consequently, the funds would be earmarked and could only be spent on projects such as road construction and repairs, or related projects such as the installation of sidewalks or bike lanes.
Pratt said he felt the proposed increases were minimal and would have little impact on residents, compared to the large benefit it could bring to Utah municipalities. According to the Utah League of Cities and Towns, the improved ability of cities to provide roads maintenance would reduce congestion, improve air quality and provide greater opportunities for economic development.
But Wardle said he doesn’t necessarily want a tax increase; he just wants the city to explore possibilities that would make municipalities more able to provide adequate roads maintenance.
Pratt said the letter simply indicates the city’s desire that the state legislature consider an issue they reviewed, but did not pass, during their last session.
“We hope that they will listen and will act on it, though they haven’t in the past” he said. “This is becoming such a problem that we have to look at it and adjust.”
The Utah League of Cities and Towns intends to launch a $300,000 publicity campaign to drum up support for the funding increase next year while the legislature is in session. While the league petitioned Tooele City to make a financial contribution toward that campaign, Tooele City did not include a commitment to do so in its Wednesday night resolution.