Cars travel down Lincoln Street on Friday afternoon. The Sitka Assembly is considering whether to levy an additional tax on motorists in order to pay for repairs to Sitka's roads. (KCAW photo/Ed Ronco)
Sitka motorists could pay more to register their vehicles in order to fund road repairs. That’s the idea behind a plan before the Sitka Assembly tonight.
It’s the latest effort by city officials to find money for the roads, and to address a problem they say is growing more urgent.
Edgecumbe Drive is about a mile long, and runs through one of Sitka’s residential neighborhoods. It’s also at the top of the list for Sitka streets in need of repair. On average, 887 cars per day travel up and down this street. That number comes from a 2010 survey conducted by the State Department of Transportation, but the road tells its own story. It’s full of patches and potholes and what engineers call “alligator cracks” – those long ruptures that look like the skin on an alligator’s back.
“The amount of need for roads, and this is from memory, the deferred maintenance is in the tens of millions,” says Assembly member Mike Reif.
His memory is pretty good. The city estimates that, worst-case scenario, it will take more than $36 million to address all of Sitka’s roadway needs in the next 10 years.
To pay for that, Reif and Assembly member Mim McConnell are co-sponsoring a measure that would add a fee on to the money Sitkans pay when they register their vehicles.
For the average family vehicle, it would be $200 every two years. Commercial vehicles would pay $400 every two years. For non-commercial trailers, it’s $100, and motorcycles are $50.
There are nearly 10,000 vehicles registered in Sitka, and the additional tax is expected to raise more than $900,000 a year. Reif says it makes sense that money for the roads should come from the people who use them.
“A number of Assembly members probably would have sponsored this,” Reif said. “I don’t think I or Mim are just the only two that would have sponsored that. I think the public is going to see the connection.”
Over at the Petro Express gas station on Katlian Street, Scott Horrigan is filling up his motorcycle — a Yamaha Midnight Virago 750.
If the Assembly passes the increased vehicle fees, he’d pay an additional $25 a year for the motorcycle and an extra $100 a year for his car.
“I don’t know. It doesn’t sound too bad,” he said. “Doesn’t sound like a bad deal. And the roads in Sitka definitely need it, in certain areas.”
Two other motorists we talked to seemed to agree. But a couple pumps away, Stephanie Weddel isn’t so sure.
“I’m not thrilled about any new taxes, especially if it’s going to be something that’s going to be added on to what we’re already paying,” Weddel said. “They just keep coming up with new ways to tax us for things that, most often, don’t apply to us.”
But in this case, the tax on motorists would pay for roads.
“Well, I think they do need work, but I think we could come up with some better ways,” Weddel said. “There are some other options out there that they could look into besides adding more taxes on to what we’ve already got.”
Any ideas?
“I’d have to think about that one for a while,” she said.
The city says it has been thinking about it for a while. It asked voters in 2009 to issue bonds for road repairs. The measure narrowly failed. It asked again for road funding in 2011, but this time by increasing property taxes. Voters rejected that measure 2 to 1.
Raising the motor vehicle registration fee will not go to the voters – it’s up to the Assembly. The upcoming meeting is the first of two the measure would need to become official.
Cars travel down Lincoln Street on Friday afternoon. The Sitka Assembly is considering whether to levy an additional tax on motorists in order to pay for repairs to Sitka’s roads. (KCAW photo/Ed Ronco)
