Posted: 5:05 p.m.Tuesday, March 24, 2015

Cities struggle to fund street repairs

By Lawrence Budd

Staff Writer

    Drivers are stuck between a pothole and ahard place as communities wrestle with a growing problem of how to pay forstreet repairs.

Localcities have made a patchwork of different decisions over how to pay for basicroad upkeep and one Warren County city is amongthose unable to settle on a stable source of money.

    Lebanon City Council recently restarteddiscussions of how to fill in an annual estimated $1.5 million deficit betweenstreet repair needs and funds on hand.

    Some council members blame the depth of theproblem on inaction dating back more than a decade.

“Councilhas not been willing in the majority to do anything,” said Jim Norris, in hisfourth four-year term on Lebanon City Council.“It’s as bad as I’ve ever seenthem.”

National problem

    Finding money for repaving is a nationalproblem, according to the National League of Cities.

    For the first time since 2008, citiesresponding to the organization’s 2014 survey indicated they were reboundingfrom the recession and rebuilding their work forces as property and incometaxes grew. Still local leaders remained concerned about their inability to payfor basic road repairs.

    “We’re seeing this economic recovery, butthey all cited infrastructure needs as having a negative impact on their citybudgets,” said Nicole Dupuis, a senior associate for city solutions and appliedresearch with the National League of Cities. “That’s one of things that isholding back local budgets from full recovery.”

    The National Highway Trust Fund’s solvencyis in question, leaving state and local policy makers to find money for therepairs, although they are less high-profile than new roads or economicdevelopment, Dupuis said.

    “Projects like that don’t generate a lot ofexcitement, but are really important,” she said.

    Cities have turned to user fees, tolls andpublic-private partnerships to offset road repair costs.

    “Ballot measures have increased year byyear,” she added.

    Madison Twp. voters passed its road levy by2 votes in November 2014, and it is believed to be the first roads-specificlevy in Butler County. Some of the past levies around Butler Countyallotted for only some of those tax dollars to be spent on road and streetrepairs and maintenance.

    Franklinvoters increased to 2 percent the income tax paid by people working in thecity, in part to help keep up on street repairs.

    City officials note that the danger ofgetting behind on basic road upkeep is that problems just mount with everywinter and it can take years to catch up

    Local money for roads typically comes fromeither income taxes, property levies or a combination of the two.

    But since 2002 Lebanon voters have rejected fourdifferent proposals to raise money for road work: two income-tax plans, and twoproposed street levies.

    Meanwhile, a $1.5 million annual deficithas developed between needs and funds available, according to an analysis byCity Manager Pat Clements presented to the council last May.

    For several months, the council discussedseeking a road levy or income tax increase, or reducing the local income-taxcredit, but has not mustered enough votes for action.

    Lebanon has budgeted $680,0000 forroad repairs this year. Its council recently again discussed how to get moremoney for road work, analyzing the budget for potential cuts, and weighingoptions ranging from seeking an additional tax levy to reducing the credit onearnings by residents who work outside the city.

Repaving plans

    Monroeis among cities that draw on different general fund sources to pay for repavingand other street maintenance.

    Monroebudgeted $1.1 million this and last year for local repaving, according to CityManager Bill Brock.

    This funding was allocated after years whenroad repairs were put off while the city dealt with fiscal emergency and theeconomic downturn, according to Brock.

    “We deferred some maintenance, but overall,we have kept up with our needs,” he said.

    Most of Monroe’s road-repair money comes from thegeneral fund, which is supported from a city 1.5 percent income tax.

    Several towns raise money by reducing the‘credit’ they give residents who pay income taxes to other communities wherethey work.

    Those credits are often full, so that aresident of one town who works in another pays only the higher of the two localincome tax rates. Reducing a credit means that a worker pays a full localincome tax to the town where they work, then a little more to the town wherethey live.

    Other communities use annual shares of thestate taxes on gasoline and motor vehicle licenses to pay for road repairs.

    The city of Hamilton budgets $2.25 million to repaveabout 3 miles of its 250 centerline miles each year, and according to PublicWorks Director Richard Engle, it would cost about $100 million to bring everyroad in the city up to a “fair” condition this year.

    Just more than $1 million of that fundingcomes from state grant sources, including the Ohio Public Works Commission andCommunity Development Block Grant funds. About $700,000 is budgeted in thecity’s infrastructure renewal fund — whose funds stem from customer utilityfees and taxes from special license plates and electric usage — $200,000 comesfrom the stormwater fund, which is used solely to repair and replace curbsassociated with catch basins, and about $300,00 is assessed to the propertyowner whose street is being repaired for sidewalk and curb replacement.

    In Middletown, “one mil of city propertytax goes for capital improvements,” city manager Doug Adkins told theJournal-News in December. This equaled about $620,000 for 2014.

    The city’s charter was amended by voters in1986 that required half of the 1.5 percent earned income tax revenues beallocated for streets and infrastructure to avoid a budget deficit in 1987 andin 1988. Some think this might be something to revisit as a way to raise morerevenue. In his presentation during his job interview last summer, Adkinssuggested by 2018 that council consider the charter amendment to requirecapital expenditures annually.

    The city also receives federal CommunityDevelopment Block Grant through Butler County as well as General Fund revenuesfrom the generation of city income tax. The city also has outside fundingsources for road improvements include Ohio Public Works Commission grants,federal infrastructure grants through the Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana RegionalCouncil of Governments, and the Ohio Department of Transportation’s Urban PavingProgram for state routes.

    In 2014, the city received about $2.2million in auto and gas tax funds are used street maintenance, which includeslabor, material, and equipment costs for the street maintenance crew, he said.Add in the outside and grant funding that total grows to about $4.2 million forroad improvements in 2014.

This article contains previous reporting by staff writers VivienneMachi and Ed Richter.