The city of West Bend has posted a survey to get feedback on overall road conditions and how to approach paying for pavement maintenance.
This survey will be available on the city website until Sept. 29.
There are five questions and an area for comments. Dist. 5 alderman Rich Kasten, who heads up the Long Range Transportation Committee said the survey is “not to advocate for any potential solution but garner true and valuable feedback on the appetite of the citizens when it comes to road maintenance”
Taking the survey took about one minute. The big factor will be the question at the end on how to pay for roads in West Bend moving forward.
Here’s a look. Click on the link below to take the survey.
Continue with the current plan:
For several years prior to and including the 2012 budget, $750,000.00 per year was designated to our annual pavement maintenance program (PMP). From 2012-2015, the annual PMP funding has been increased 19% to $924,768.00 per year in 2015 (without tax increase). Another 4% increase is proposed for the 2016 PMP budget bringing the 2016 PMP budget to $960,000.00 per year (without tax increase). The current plan would include raising the annual PMP budget at a rate greater than the rate of inflation from 2017 on.
Wheel tax or other fee restricted to roads.
A wheel tax could be assessed to each motor vehicle in West Bend and would be an addition to the vehicle registration fee charged by Wisconsin. This wheel tax would be restricted to transportation needs in West Bend and cannot be used to fund other items within the city. These funds would be added to the PMP funds already budgeted by the city. As an example, there are 31,000 vehicles registered and if a $20.00 wheel tax was assessed, it would generate roughly $600,000 in additional yearly PMP funds.
Referendum to increase taxes/borrowing.
In lieu of an additional fee, this solution would put forth a referendum to ask the citizens if they would support either a raise in taxes or a separate borrowing to help add additional funds to the PMP budget. A raise in taxes may not be restricted to transportation needs and would become part of the general fund. A separate borrowing could be restricted to road projects and would, in the end, be reflected as an additional expense to the city and would be reflected in the tax rate.