Clark County Board of Supervisors Rejects Wheel Tax Ordinance
Friday, October 3rd, 2014 -- 10:29 AM
-The Clark County Board of Supervisors killed the proposed $30 wheel tax ordinance for the county with a 23 no to 5 yes vote.This proposed ordinance would have created a $30 annual vehicle registration fee for people living in Clark County. With the 27,000 cars and light trucks in the county, it was estimated that it would bring in nearly $810,000 per year for the county. That money would have specifically been used for road construction, and only road construction, in the county. If it had passed, it would have been effective on January 1st of 2015 with a sunset date of January 1st of 2020. It also had the option to be repealed if a new way of acquiring funds for the roads was found.
Due to the high cost of road construction, needing to balance the budget and levy freezes imposed by the state, Clark County has decreased the number of roads paved from year to year. In the proposed budget for 2015, Clark County will only be paving 5 miles of county roads. This puts the roads on a 60 year cycle, meaning if 2 miles of county highway H were paved in 2015, they wouldn?t be paved again until 2075.
The general consensus between the board members and residents present at the meeting was that the tax was not applied fairly. Due to state statute, this tax could not be applied to buggies, motorcycles, mopeds, bikes, trailers, farm or dual purpose vehicles and vehicles that are over 8,000 pounds. That means that even though the Amish Community uses our roads, they couldn?t be taxed with this. Another concern many had was the lack of awareness many people had about the tax. Several citizens present at the meeting said they had just heard about the tax the day before and that more people should have been notified. The Finance Committee Members did admit that it was pushed through in a relatively short amount of time, about a month, as they were doing the budget.
There were other options brought up by the board members and citizens to raise money for the roads including a real estate tax, which would add a tax to those that own property, and adding a ?% sales tax in the county. However, an issue raised with the real estate tax, in comparison to the wheel tax, was that not everyone who owns a car in the county owns property. In regards to the ?% sales tax, basically every board member and citizen present said they could support it, but that decision is out of the hands of the Board of Supervisors. The state legislature has to approve the increase and it would be for all counties, not just Clark. The state legislature has tried to pass a bill with that increase in the past couple sessions, but it has failed every time.
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