Gregory County adds $2 wheel tax

Talk about it

As of Jan. 1, Gregory County residents are being assessed a $2 per wheel tax for road maintenance and repair.

After county voters rejected a $4-per-wheel maximum tax on Nov. 2, county commissioners moved quickly on a resolution to enact the lower tax, County Auditor Jim Waterbury said.

Commission Chairman Dennis Vedral, of rural Gregory, said commissioners decided the county needed to adopt the $8 tax per vehicle.

“We got 660-plus miles of roads to maintain,” he said. “Everyone’s in the same boat as we are. We are running short on funds.”

Gregory County is one of many counties that sought a new revenue source, such as an opt-out of the state property tax freeze or wheel tax, last year to pay for road repairs and maintenance.

County Highway Superintendent Steve Cassidy estimated last summer it would cost $6.25 million to repair 25 miles of asphalt roads that are deteriorating because of larger farm equipment and loads hauled by semi-tractors that weren’t used 30-plus years ago when roads were first paved.

Oil roads are in major need of repair and the county has been delaying that work, Cassidy said.

Vedral added that high prices for fuel and materials and having only one gravel source in the county leading to high transportation costs contribute to the problems.

“You can just see the trend that is happening,” he said. “We’re just using up our funds and in the future, there isn’t going to be any. Then you’re going to have to cut services and you don’t want to do that if you don’t have to.”

Commissioners approved the tax on second reading on Dec. 7, leaving enough time for Waterbury to have public notices published by Jan. 1.

State law prevents a $2 wheel tax from being referred to a public vote, Waterbury said.

The lower wheel tax will generate about $62,500 — half of what county officials had hoped to raise by pursuing the maximum tax of $16 last year.

Vedral acknowledged that extra revenue won’t go very far.

“It’ll probably be used for graveling,” he said. “That would be my guess. You just do one small project and you could spend $100,000.”

Once the lower wheel tax has been in place for awhile, Vedral said he thought county commissioners might pursue increasing the wheel tax to the maximum amount.

So far, he hasn’t received any complaints.

“Once they understand it’s for the betterment of roads and roads only, maybe they’ll implement it,” he said of county residents. “We’ll wait and see.”

Instead of passing a resolution that could be referred to a public vote, Vedral said he thought commissioners would schedule an election in conjunction with a general election.

He didn’t know if that would occur in 2012 or 2014.

Tags: gregory county, wheel tax, news