A Tax to Fix Potholes? That Can Be Arranged...
It would appear that potholes are the number one concern for Tacoma voters. At least you could easily come to that conclusion based on a recent survey commissioned by the City of Tacoma.
The survey, which was given by phone to 400 Tacoma voters a little over a month ago (March 29 through April 1) began with an open-ended question: “What issue facing the City of Tacoma do you feel most needs to be addressed over the next two years?” To which nearly one quarter of survey participants (23%) mentioned “road and street infrastructure related issues.” As the survey summary points out, this is significant.
Because no response categories are given, having one-in-four (23%) residents mention road and street issues as their top of mind concern indicates that this is a major concern for Tacoma residents.
Other issues listed included balancing the budget, crime and public safety concerns, education, and unemployment and job creation, among others. Other questions asked focused on perceptions of transportation needs, priorities, and funding.
When asked to rate a variety of “priorities a Transportation measure could fund,” the top-ranked item was “repairing potholes on local streets,” followed by “making safety repairs to bridges,” and “repairing main arterial streets.” Of the 13 item list of transportation priorities given to the voters, the bottom five items related to bus service, bicycles, and pedestrians.
Of note is the question related to a possible increase in property taxes.
There may be a Neighborhood Streets Improvement and Safety measure on the ballot later this year in the City of Tacoma. This measure concerns ongoing maintenance of neighborhood streets and road safety improvements. If approved, it would fund basic road maintenance, pothole repair and repaving of neighborhood streets and arterials, safety improvements at intersections, sidewalks, and crosswalks near schools and community centers, and traffic signal improvements to increase traffic flow. This measure would increase the City’s regular property tax by fifty cents to a total authorized rate of three dollars and forty seven cents per one thousand dollars of assessed value for six years. In general, do you strongly support, somewhat support, somewhat oppose or strongly oppose this Neighborhood Streets Improvement and Safety measure?
The results of this question showed that 68% of survey respondents would either “strongly support” or “somewhat support” such a measure.
It’s no surprise that Tacomans see the condition of their streets as a problem, although we were a little surprised to hear that the survey showed that the majority of residents consider potholes to be the City’s most pressing priority. We were also a little surprised to see such broad support for a property tax increase measure. Other takeaways listed for the survey included the importance of accountability and transparency for the City as it moves forward with any funding project. Voters surveyed were mixed on whether they trusted the City to spend their tax dollars wisely, but it looks, for now at least, like they might be willing to fork over a few more pennies, if they go towards road repairs.
View the full results of the City of Tacoma survey (pdf). Do you agree? What’s your impression?
Filed under: Transportation, Legislation, Roads
4 comments
G Glenn May 3, 2012
I hate to sound like a freakin TNT commenter here but WE ALREADY PAY FOR THE ROADS TO BE FIXED! Why are we taxing property owners for fixing the roads? Why aren’t we taxing the DRIVERS? We all know that most of those who live in the areas with the worst roads (downtown & Hilltop) either pay no property tax or are renters. The shifting of the tax burden to the smaller and smaller group of home owners in Tacoma is unacceptable.
I would much prefer for the city to sell the damn mix that they user to fill the pot holes and to just let citizens fix it themselves. Have a pot hole in front of your house starting to form? Hit up Lowes, or the landfill, or Tagro, or somewhere and buy a bag of pot-hole fill. Of course, the cost should be subsidized since our tax dollars are already going toward this service. You bring the bag home, pour some water in it, mix it up, pour it in the hole, trowel it flat – done and done. Takes me an hour of my time and $5 but at least that pot hole doesn’t become a massive pit like the ones on Union Ave.
J jd May 3, 2012
We need to be very careful with the ‘you use it, you pay for it’ mentality. While I hate the frikkin’ potholes, and think that the money to repair them should come from user fees (car tabs), not homeowner taxes, this could be a slippery slope. I don’t want to pay an admission fee to get into the library, nor do I think we should be get a service charge whenever the Police or Fire Dept show up.
We have a system where we all pay for services we may, or may not use, because those services benefit society as a whole, and in turn, benefit each of us indirectly. Everyone pays for public safety, public schools, libraries, buses, etc. because it’s for the greater good. Like a wise person once said, taxes are what we pay to live in society.
I hate the potholes as much as the next person, but certainly don’t consider them our most pressing issue (I probably wouldn’t put them in my top ten). That having been said, if the majority of residents polled consider them to be our most pressing issue, things must be going pretty darn well!
R Rollie May 3, 2012
I had a chance to look at a Seattle property tax statement. House was worth $114,000.00 more than mine but the property taxes were $1076.50 less. The houses are in similar neighborhoods, both within their respective city limits.
Most of the difference is in the school assessment and Metro Parks. Schools are $1739.35 more in Tacoma, parks $480.48.
One of our council-members says taxes in Tacoma are higher because “Tacoma is much poorer than Seattle in terms of assessed values” and that “in order to raise the NECESSARY amount of money for school operations, our rates have to be higher than Seattle’s” (emphasis added). All that and the Seattle schools rate higher than ours. Perhaps government is trying to do too much here in Tacoma.
T tacoma_1 May 4, 2012
I’ll be voting against a pothole tax if that is all is offered. I want to see funding for complete streets, and transit incorporated into a total transportation package. Just patching potholes will fix nothing long term.