Moses Lake board imposes $20 vehicle fee

MOSES LAKE — Moses Lake’s newly created Transportation Benefit District (TBD) passed a resolution Tuesday night that will impose a $20 vehicle licensing fee for Moses Lake residents.

The Moses Lake City Council previously approved an ordinance to create the TBD, which consists of councilmembers, at a past council meeting. Washington law gives city and/or county governments the ability to create a TBD and use the generated funds, via an additional vehicle licensing fee and/or a sales tax increase, to help pay for street maintenance projects and pedestrian improvements in the city.

“A Transportation Benefit District would allow the city to better maintain its streets for all users. The city has 200 lane miles and a backlog of street projects to maintain,” reads information from the city’s public works department. “Numbers received from (the) WA State Department of Licensing estimates that the $20 vehicle license fee will generate $333,669.60 annually to help maintain the city’s transportation system.”

The city's annual street construction budget currently sits at just over $1 million. City documents indicate there is currently $13.4 million worth of unfunded street projects in the city.

The board has the ability to impose the $20 vehicle licensing fee without a public vote, which goes into effect 180 days after its approval by the board. In addition, the board has the option of bumping the fee up to $40 after two years. Any fee that goes above $40 is subject to a referendum vote of the people. The board also has the option to impose a 0.20 percent sales tax, which would require a simple majority via referendum vote in order to be instituted. The board has the authority to direct the generated funds and allocate monies toward projects.

The majority of the board has been leaning in the direction of imposing the $20 tab fee, with a major sticking point of the sales tax option being that a loan would have to be given to the TBD, if the board went solely in the direction of the sales tax increase, in order to place the measure on the ballot.

During their Tuesday night meeting, board members discussed the option of imposing the $20 tab fee and using the monies generated by the fee to fund the placing of the sales tax increase measure on a future ballot, in lieu of taking a loan from the general fund to pay for the election.

“No one likes to raise taxes and this is a difficult thing to do. But, as it’s been said, our roads are really in disrepair and if you study our history we had to put things on hold for several years and it’s only a matter of time before they continue to deteriorate,” board member Karen Liebrecht said. “We need to get this funded so we can make an election and not take money. And if we don’t pass the tabs; we have no money to fund an election.”

Board member Don Myers suggested a compromise by lowering the tab fee down to $10, but the suggestion did not receive backing from the rest of the board. Board members Bill Ecret, Todd Voth, David Curnel, Mike Norman, and Liebrecht voted in favor of the tab fee. Myers and board member Ryann Leonard voted against it.

The board also passed a resolution with regard to the sales tax increase, which is expected to raise about $1.4 million annually for street projects. The resolution, which was unanimously passed by the board, states that upon approval of the sales tax measure by voters, the $20 tab fee will no longer be in effect and no longer be collected.

“The sales tax option. Yes it does produce more revenue and it also is, I'll use the term, more fair,” city manager John Williams remarked. “However, the ability to enact something sooner leaves you with the tab fee option.”

The board will be setting a date in the future to run the sales tax referendum in an election.

Richard Byrd can be reached via email at city@columbiabasinherald.com.