Government leaders from Marshall County and Pulaski County, along with the City of Plymouth and town council representatives attended a joint meeting of the Marshall County Commissioners and Marshall County Council Wednesday night to learn how to generate funding for local roads and streets.
Pat Conner, Research Manager at the Indiana Local Technical Assistance Program through Purdue University, explained how counties can use the Local Option Highway User Tax (LOHUT) to generate funds for road projects. The combined bodies of government are concerned that the state will not be giving counties any more funding for roads in the proposed biennial state budget.
Conner explained that LOHUT contains two different taxes: county motor vehicle excise surtax and a county wheel tax. Both taxes must be adopted by the county council by ordinance. The county government can choose to enact a flat amount for an excise tax between $7.50 to $25.00 per vehicle, which applies to passenger vehicles, motorcycles, trucks under 11,000 pounds and motor driven cycles, or mopeds. The wheel tax is a tax that applies to vehicles not subject to the excise tax. That list includes buses, RVs, semi-tractors, semi-trailers, tractors, trailers, and trucks weighing 11,000 pounds or more. The wheel tax is assessed per vehicle, not per wheel. Wheel tax rates can range between $5.00 and $40.00. Exempt vehicles are vehicles owned by a state, local, or town entity or vehicles registered to religious organizations.
These taxes are paid with a vehicle registration at the Bureau of Motor Vehicles.
The money generated from these taxes can be used to construct, reconstruct, repair or maintain streets under county, city or town jurisdiction. The taxes are divided by the county treasurer. The county would get a portion of funding while Argos, Culver, Bremen, Bourbon, LaPaz, and Plymouth would receive a share. The county as a whole could receive between $300,000 and $1.1 million, depending on what tax amount is set.
Aside from the LOHUT tax, Conner said there aren’t other options to generate additional funding for roads.
Marshall County Highway Administrator Laurie Baker said the highway department gets about $350,000 a month, and that money is divided between payroll, expenses, and projects. Supervisor of County Highways Jason Peters said it takes about $72,000 to pave one mile of road with two inches of asphalt. That estimate doesn’t count what it takes to prep a road for paving.
Marshall County Council President Matt Hassel asked Baker to provide the council with a report that lays out what the county could do with the money generated from a LOHUT tax. He said that could help determine if enacting the taxes would be worth the action.
Commission President Kevin Overmyer said the commissioners could make a recommendation to the council at their next meeting on May 4. If the county wants to reap the benefits of the tax in 2016, if enacted, then an ordinance would need to be in place by June 30. If the ordinance is enacted after that deadline, it would be 2017 before any money would be collected.
No decision was made during this meeting. The meeting was for informational purposes only.
