Engineer Urges County To Ok Gas Tax For Roads

Faced with busier roads, heavier trucks and two consecutive harsh winters, Spokane County’s top engineer wants his bosses to ask taxpayers for more road money.

After meeting with Bill Johns and road department engineers for two hours Wednesday, county commissioners didn’t approve a public vote on a tax of $15 for every car, or 2.3 cents for every gallon of gas. Or both.

But they didn’t rule out those options, either.

Instead, they promised to discuss it during an upcoming meeting with the Spokane City Council.

Commissioner Kate McCaslin said she wanted to wait and see whether the Legislature raises the state gasoline tax from 23 cents to 30 cents per gallon. Spokane County would get some of the money.

That proposal died late Wednesday. The state Senate approved a state transportation budget that doesn’t include the higher gas tax.

If both local taxes were placed on the ballot and approved, Spokane County would get about $5 million a year, the city of Spokane would get about $3 million, and the county’s small towns would split about $200,000.

Heavy snow early and late in 1996 forced Johns to overspend his road maintenance budget by $1.6 million. He has to make that up from his $13.2 million budget for this year.

That means doing less of the preventative maintenance that keeps roads from falling apart later.

For instance, crews will apply sealant to 50 of the county’s 3,000 miles of roads, said county operations engineer Phil Barto. Normally, 130 miles of roads get the treatment.

“I think we can get by with that for one year,” Barto said.

The city is facing similar problems.

Historically, taxes on driving have not been popular with Spokane residents.

County commissioners adopted a motor vehicle tax in 1991, before any of the current commissioners were elected. Faced with overwhelming opposition, they repealed it before the first bill was collected.

Last September, city voters rejected a $37.5 million bond issue and property tax hike to pay for road repairs. Those same voters would be asked to vote again if commissioners put a tax on the ballot.

McCaslin thinks the county could convince tax-weary voters that a special tax is justified because the cost of road materials is soaring and traffic is getting heavier.

That the tax was suggested by Johns, who twice ran as a conservative against former U.S. Rep. Tom Foley, shows McCaslin may be right.

Only a late commissioners’ meeting on Tuesday kept Johns from the post office, where most years he spends the evening of April 15 carrying an anti-IRS placard.

Johns said the gas tax or motor vehicle tax would be reasonable if they end after five years, and if the county gives voters a list of specific projects that would be accomplished with the money.

If both taxes pass, Johns suggested adding $4 million to each year’s maintenance budget, and saving the other $1 million for road construction.

The county typically gets at least $3 from the state and federal government for every dollar it spends on road construction. So, over the course of five years, the county would have an additional $20 million to spend on new or improved roads.

, DataTimes