Valley looking for new funding source for roads

A utility tax on phone landlines funds road work in Spokane Valley, a strategy that seemed sensible when it was adopted in 2009.

However, as the use of landlines has declined rapidly, so has the tax revenue. The city needs about $7.4 million to preserve and maintain its roads, but annual revenue from the phone tax has fallen to $2.3 million and is still declining.

Mayor Rod Higgins wrote in the city’s newsletter that this leaves little choice but to replace the landline tax with a utility tax on either power or natural gas. Spokane Valley collects neither.

“We want to start a dialogue about this,” said Higgins, adding he has received five comments so far from city residents.

“That’s pretty good, but I’d like to hear from more people,” he said. A recent survey on solid waste services produced more than 600 responses, the mayor noted. “People are paying attention to what’s going on.”

Higgins said it’s possible roads can be maintained for as little as $4 million a year, but that would hamstring larger projects and expansions.

His main concern is that he doesn’t want Spokane Valley to end up where Spokane was before voters approved a $117 million bond measure in 2004 to start fixing city streets.

“Where we are going here is trying to find a tax that will meet our needs and continue to meet our needs in the future, so we don’t have to go back to the well again,” Higgins said.

Councilman Ed Pace supports the ideas.

“We have to find the funding or stop fixing the roads,” Pace said. “I think people recognize that we need to do this to keep the roads up.”

Revenue from a utility tax on natural gas or power would be dedicated to road maintenance and expansion.

Without a different revenue source, road projects would have to be put on hold.

“We don’t want to do that,” Higgins said. “We have become accustomed to good roads – we want to keep that up.”