Local residents will soon be paying more for their vehicle registration.
The Union County Commissioners on Thursday approved a pair of resolutions to add a group of fees each time a resident registers a vehicle, effective in January 2021. The additional fees would total as much as $15 per vehicle.
Based on the 79,257 vehicles registered in Union County, officials estimate the fees will generate an additional $954,450 in revenue for the county.
For Marysville residents, who currently pay $34.50 per vehicle registration, the legislation means they will now pay $49.50. The increase means that vehicles in Richwood and Plain City would pay $59.50 a year, the highest in the county.
Officials said they wanted to pass the increases this week to make sure that any referendum would be placed on the spring primary election ballot and not the larger, and later general election in November.
State law requires the fees be used for “planning, constructing, improving, maintaining and repairing public roads, highways, streets and for the maintaining and repair of bridges and viaducts.”
Union County Engineer Jeff Stauch said that growth in the funds available for road and bridge maintenance has not kept pace with the increased cost of those maintenance projects. He said there is a $6.3 million “funding shortfall” between the local funding and the cost of needed projects for safety. The engineer said that will be an annual shortfall, “each year for the foreseeable future.”
Commissioner Steve Stolte said there are “a lot of projects” that need to be done, specifically mentioning the needs for guardrails, intersection improvements and roads that need widened or resurfaced.
“We are a rural county with the revenue of a rural county still, but we are getting the challenges (of a larger county),” Stauch said.
County officials said two of the fees, totaling $10 per vehicle, could be voted on by the public, but they didn’t want to go to the voters. Stauch said that in the 1990s, voters rejected the additional fees “rather substantially.”
“We have a pretty big annual shortfall,” commissioner Chris Schmenk said. “I think we need a strategy that gets us the most possible. I know we need to think about referendums and public input, but this shortfall, I don’t think, is going to get less.”
County officials said they worried about putting all of the fees on the ballot at one time. They said they believe that increases the likelihood of a referendum.
“I don’t like doing it. I never like doing it. I just feel it is inevitable because our current gap is going to keep growing as our county grows,” Schmenk said. “And I would rather kind of get it over with rather than coming back every year with a new one.”
“But by the same token, I don’t want to lose one because of maybe two more,” commissioner Charles Hall responded.
Stauch said Liberty and York townships already have additional $5 fees. Jerome Township has approved a $5 fee that will be collected next year. Assistant Union County Prosecutor Thayne Gray said Allen Township is “headed toward” an additional $5 fee that would become effective in 2021.
Plain City and Richwood already have $15 fees.
Stolte said government officials in the municipalities and townships should be supportive of the increases because they would see an increase in funds. The townships would see $1.50 of increased revenue for each registered vehicle. Each township, other than those that have already exercised it, would also have the opportunity to impose its own $5 per vehicle increase. Marysville would also receive nearly $57,700 per year.
County Administrator Tim Hansley said that if residents place a referendum on the ballot, the county could offer to reduce the sales tax that goes to road and bridges. He called it “a carrot” to get voters to reject the referendum. The commissioners also discussed the option of making the levy a permanent levy the next time it goes on the ballot.
Stolte said it is, “a good thing that we have spread our revenue over quite a number of different sources” saying the county receives road funds through the state license fee, the gas tax, the sales tax and now the additional fee on registrations.
Hansley said the county is different than it was 25 years ago.
“You have a lot of new people who are willing to pay to keep the roads safe,” he said.
He said that while there have been some negative comments about the increased funding, “I think people are pretty happy with what we are doing.”
Stolte said that even with the additional fees, “the needs, moving forward, can’t be met with that kind of increase, but we thought, let’s do what we can do to be meet the need even though we can’t meet it all.”