Transportation Benefit District Budget: Plans for Spending That $20 Car Tab Fee

In 2012 a Transportation Benefit District was formed to fund transportation system improvements in Tacoma. Later that year the TBD adopted its first funding mechanism, a $20 car tab fee. 

Since then the TBD has been collecting those fees. In the 2013-2014 biennium, $4 million was collected, and allocated to street rehabilitation, non-motorized and sidewalk/ramp projects, and traffic signal repairs and upgrades. The bulk of the money went to repairs to residential and arterial street maintenance and repairs.

Now the TBD is looking ahead to its 2015-2016 biennial budget and spending plan. A draft shows just under $4.8 million in revenue anticipated, allocated in roughly the same proportions as the first budget.

The recommendation is to spent the bulk of that revenue, approximately $4.3 million, on street rehabilitation, paying for repair and maintenance for both residential and arterial streets.

• Residential Chip Seal - $507,400 - approximately 86 blocks of residential chip seal to improve the riding surface and create a water resistant roadway to extend the life of the road. 
• Residential Overlay - $2,370,000 - approximately 78 blocks of residential overlay, including grinding approximately 2‐4 inches of damaged or failed asphalt, and overlaying it with a new pavement surface. 
• Arterial Chip Seal -  $392,500 - approximately 15.7 lane miles of arterial chip seal.
• Crack Sealing - $165,977 - approximately 28 lane miles of crack sealing used in preparation of a surface treatment or as a standalone repair to fill and seal roadway cracks to extend the life of the roadway. 
• Other Maintenance/Repair - $897,017 - treatments include requested pothole repair (temporary and permanent), permanent asphalt repairs, and concrete panel replacement. 

The smallest portion of the funds would go to maintenance, repairs, and upgrades for traffic signals

• Detection Upgrade/Replacement - $60,000 - replacement of vehicle loop detectors in failed condition. Program funds will be leveraged with Transportation Benefit District revenues to repair and replace loop detectors.

The remainder of the budget would go to improvements for nonmotorized traffic.

• Curb Ramps New/Repair - $400,000 - installation and replacement of curb ramps affected by the residential street overlay program and traffic signal
  upgrades. 

As a frame of reference, if you pay your $20 car tab fee, here's roughly how those percentages would break down in dollars and cents (assuming we did our math right).

• 90.4% for street repair and maintenance = $18.08
• 1.25% for signal repair and replacement = $0.25
• 8.3% for curb ramps = $1.66

The Transportation Benefit District Governing Board (a.k.a. the City Council) is scheduled to meet this Tuesday during the regular Council meeting. On the agenda for this week is a public hearing on the proposed 2015-2016 TBD Budget and Spending Plan. We'll expect to hear a little more detail on what the projects funded might look like, and there will be an opportunity for the public to comment on these spending plans. A second public hearing is scheduled for November 25.

It's your $20, what do you think of the plans to spend it?