The residents of Covington have spoken, or at least 2,665 of them have. The Covington Transportation Benefit District’s Proposition 1 failed on the April 28 ballot, with 48 percent in favor.
The district was planning to have Proposition 1, a proposed 0.002 sales tax increase, be the funding mechanism for street maintenance needs for the next 10 years.
The increase would have equated to an additional $0.20 for every $100 in taxable purchases and would have generated $750,000 per year in revenue for the city’s road and sidewalk maintenance.
The city’s current means of keeping up with street maintenance is through a $250,000 annual subsidy from the general fund to the road fund.
That method, City Manager Regan Bolli said, can only keep up for two more years before it becomes not sustainable.
Since Prop 1 failed, city officials are now asking themselves, “Now what?”
In the next few months, several funding options, including holding off altogether and keeping with the status quo, will be presented to the City Council for consideration.
Bolli said city staff is currently doing research on the various options available to them. One of those options is a potential utility tax on water and sewer, the only utility currently not taxed by the city. It would bring the rate for those services up to the level of the rest of the utilities, or 6 percent.
Bolli said this option puts most of the burden on Covington residents, whereas Prop 1 would have been spread between residents and non residents.
“Most of the funds would be paid by non-residents (under Prop 1),” he said in a phone interview. “All the other options we have, most of the residents would pay.”
The utility tax would also not be a voter-approved initiative like Prop 1 was. If the City Council chooses this option, it would be able to implement it without any vote of the people, Bolli said.
The other options Bolli said staff is researching are a potential car tab fee implemented by the Transportation Benefit District, or an increase to the storm water management fee.
In addition to not being able to supply the road fund with its own revenue source, Bolli said the Covington police department is understaffed for a city of this size. The city has 14 officers with a population of about 18,500. According to Bolli, the standard is to have about one officer for every 1,000 residents.
“If Prop 1 had passed, we would have been able to take back that ($250,000) subsidy and hired another officer or two,” he said.
The city is inviting comments from the public about what the city’s priorities should be. Bolli said people can contact the city directly by commenting on their new blog, https://covingtonpulse.wordpress.com, or speaking during public comment opportunities at City Council meetings.
Bolli said he predicts the council will make a decision about what to do to fund road maintenance or put it on hold by the end of the year.
