Much of the city will be a construction zone next summer, and officials couldn’t be happier.
“For years, all of us on the City Council have been hearing complaints about how bad the roads are,” said Tom Smith, R-1st. “So I’m looking forward to hearing complaints about all the construction and how people can’t get around because of all the streets being repaired. That will be the best complaint I’ve ever received.”
There may be a lot of those complaints: Mayor Tom Henry and city officials announced Monday that the city’s higher income tax approved this summer will pay for 50 miles of asphalt resurfacing, 10 miles of concrete street reconstruction, repairs to brick streets and dozens of other improvements next year.
On June 25, the City Council voted to raise the city’s income tax from 1 percent to 1.35 percent, part of a package of tax increases and spending cuts that will create about $13.5 million in new revenue for the city.
Officials said $3 million will go toward city parks, $2.8 million to hiring new police and firefighters and the rest to streets and roads.
“Poor (Public Works Director) Bob Kennedy has really had to run around the city trying to fix only the most dire streets,” Henry said. “He’s going to be able to sleep at night.”
This year, with falling revenues from declining gas tax revenues and property tax caps, the city was able to pave about 20 miles of asphalt streets and repair about two miles of concrete streets. As revenue has fallen, the backlog of projects officials couldn’t afford to fix has grown to an estimated $60 million worth.
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