For a tax that puts a couple of million dollars a year in local government coffers, the wheel tax is treated with skepticism by some officials.
On Tuesday, Delaware County Council, in a split vote, narrowly approved the re-introduction of the wheel tax locally. The vote came after the county’s fiscal body heard about the importance of revenue from the tax to local road paving budgets
.Also Tuesday, council discussed county government’s ongoing financial
problems, authorizing the borrowing of millions of dollars and reopening budget discussions.Regarding the wheel tax, council’s three Republican members, Scott Alexander, Rick Spangler and Ron Quakenbush, voted against the introduction of the renewal of the tax, which will be finalized at the council’s May meeting. Council’s four Democrats voted to introduce the measure.
Wheel tax is unlike property taxes that fund most government or state gasoline taxes that have traditionally funded street and highway
department operations because it is more of a fee, paid when motorists pay for their license plates.Delaware County Council adopted the wheel tax in 2009 after hearing indications from the state that counties couldn’t expect future increases in the Local Road
and Streets (LRS) tax.The city and county each get just more than $1 million in wheel tax revenue each year, amounts that have allowed some LRS money
to fund county highway department wages and salaries.It’s that use of LRS money that prompted council veteran Quakenbush to vote against the renewal.
Alexander and Spangler had other issues with the re-introduced tax. The two said they thought the measure should carry a “sunset” clause that would either bring it to an end or prompt the county highway department to regularly brief council on how the money is spent.
“I don’t know that there is a good tax, but this has restrictions on what it can be used for,” Alexander said.
Council Democrat Mike Jones said a sunset clause wasn’t needed. “We have the ability to rescind it at any point,” he noted.
County highway Supt. Chris McCammon talked about the importance of the wheel tax and city street Supt. Duke Campbell was about to when council members called for the introduction to go to a vote.
The renewal of the wheel tax has to come before June 31.
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