Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
Whitman County commissioners Monday approved a proposal for a road levy tax lift to go on the ballot in November.
To be voted on by residents of the county’s unincorporated areas, the added revenue would go primarily for maintenance on rural roads.
The measure would raise the rate of tax collection on property from $1.45 to $2.25 per thousand dollars of assessed valuation. The rate would then likely go down as home valuations go up from year to year.
The county has spent from reserves in the road department for the past three years.
“At some point in the very near future we will have to start cutting back on programs and doing less,” Mark Storey, Public Works director, said.
Whitman County’s road department is funded two-thirds from state gas tax from which Whitman County receives back about $2 for every dollar generated by fuel sold in the county.
With the lift from $1.45 per thousand to $2.25, the county would raise an additional $1.4 million per year.
How would it be spent?
Storey laid out a list for commissioners. The largest slice would go to gravel for rural roads by an increase of $300,000 per year.
Next, $250,000 would go to new personnel and to support existing workers and $150,000 would be added to the fund for new road-graders, followed by $100,000 for culvert and drainage structure replacements countywide, $100,000 for roadside ditch cleaning, $250,000 to be used for chip-sealing, paved road patches and miscellaneous. The final $250,000 would be slated for winter operations and other cost increases.
“If the voters approve it, I think we could do a much better job of taking care of the rural roads,” Storey said.
Taxes would increase. For example, property tax on a house valued at $200,000 would go up $159.50 per year.
In comments by commissioners Monday, Dean Kinzer noted the one percent per year limit for revenue growth in county taxes put in by the state legislature in 2001.
“While expenses are going up three to five percent every year,” said the commissioner.
“Our biggest inflationary driver is the state,” said Commissioner Michael Largent. “This is about keeping the services that Whitman County has come to expect. We’re trying to address a state problem with a local ordinance.”
Since 2001, the ranks of county public works employees has been cut by 19.
“And with more regulation, that takes people away from active work,” Commissioner Art Swannack commented.
Largent noted that the condition of county roads was the number one topic he heard about from voters during his re-election campaign last year.
Storey, who has worked for Whitman County Public Works for 18 years, and since 2006 as director, has never been involved with a road levy increase request.
“It took a lot to get me to admit we needed to ask the voters for this,” he said.
Garth Meyer is a former Whitman County Gazette reporter.
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