PLYMOUTH — Plymouth’s Common Council voted unanimously on Monday night to enact an ordinance to create a wheel tax for local road maintenance.
The consideration of the ordinance was made necessary by the passage of House Enrolled Act 1461, by the Indiana General Assembly in their last session, changing the way state money is allocated for roads around the state. The change not only included a reduction of money available to local government entities to use for roads, but also changed the way that money will be distributed.
The bill put a cap of $1 million on how much matching money can be applied for, lowering the total to be distributed around the state to $100 million. In addition, there was a 50 percent reduction in the Community Crossings matching grant program for 2027, with the stipulation that those monies would only be allocated to local government entities that had instituted their own local wheel tax and excluding those that hadn’t from consideration.
City Attorney Jeff Houin told the Council that without a wheel tax, the city of Plymouth would be walking away from an estimated $190 to $260 million in matching funds on the table. In order to be enacted by 2027, the tax has to be approved by Sept. 1 of this year.
Council members used phrases such as “…our hands are tied…”, “They are forcing us to do this…,” and “…held hostage…” in their statements before the vote, saying that without the matching funds provided by the state, the city’s road maintenance would suffer drastic cuts.
The Council passed the ordinance on second and third reading.
