Town looks to raise taxes for road repair
FULTON TOWNSHIP — The Fulton Town Board knows it doesn’t have an easy sell to make in Tuesday’s referendum.
“You say 62 percent, and they about have a heart attack,” Chairman Evan Sayre said.
But that’s how much the town needs to raise its levy to repair roads and avoid more costs down the line, he said.
The town board is asking residents to approve that increase at Tuesday’s primary election, in time for the town to incorporate the increase in its 2009 budget.
Under state law, a municipality can raise its tax levy by only 2 percent or the percentage of new growth in the community in 2009 unless it holds a referendum.
In Fulton, that means the board could raise its levy by about $10,000, Sayre said.
That doesn’t even come close to the increasing cost of road maintenance, he said. Road maintenance and snow removal made up almost a quarter of the town’s 2008 budget.
The cost of road maintenance, especially the price of asphalt, has risen dramatically over the last four years, said Ben Coopman, Rock County Public Works director. Fulton contracts with Rock County for its road maintenance.
In 2008 alone, the cost to pave 1 mile of road with a 2-inch layer of asphalt has gone up 20 percent, from $67,000 to about $80,000. The cost is now almost double what it was in 2004, and the county doesn’t expect it to drop anytime soon, Coopman said.
Officials blame the rising costs on the price of oil.
“All you’re doing is buying oil, and that’s about what the price of oil has gone up in the last few years, 62 percent,” Sayre said.
The town should repave between 3 and 3½ miles a year to keep its 63 miles of road in good repair, Sayre said. But this year, the town could afford to finish repaving only a 2.75-mile stretch of Kidder Road that it started last year.
The town hopes to repave 2½ or 3 miles next year, but the total could be more or less depending on the price of asphalt and whether the referendum passes, Clerk Connie Zimmerman said.
An analysis from the Wisconsin Information System for Local Roads found more than half the township’s roads are in “poor” or “fair” condition, though very few are in “very poor” or “failed” condition.
Those roads will get only worse—and more expensive to fix—if the town ignores them, Sayre said.
“If you don’t deal with the problem now and we’ve got to deal with it five years from now, you can just multiply (the cost),” he said.
The town estimates the increased levy will add $116 in taxes on a $100,000 home. That homeowner paid $183 in taxes in 2008 and will pay about $299 in 2009 if the referendum passes.
Sayre believes residents understand the need to fix the roads, even in today’s tough economy.
“It’s kind of hard times, but it’s never a good time to spend a lot of money,” he said.
Sep 7, 2008 at 9:23 p.m.
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Farmers, with overweighted, vehicles are the primary cause of this. Enforce weight limits and resolve the problem! Want proof? follow the cracks in the road.
Sep 7, 2008 at 11:49 a.m.
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Fultontaxpayer: Good idea for an alternative solution. A doubling of the Town taxrate right now as proposed, should result in a recall for all Board members in support of that woefull idea. They are trying to sneak it through in a primary when very few people are aware of the proposal. Fulton town residents should make all of their neighbors aware of this ripoff.
Sep 7, 2008 at 10:53 a.m.
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What the informational mailer I received from Dave Brown failed to mention was the total cost of this referendum. No figures were given on either the costs to repair the roads or the intended levy amount.
Fulton Township is in the middle of town-wide re-evaluation of their tax base. Without having hard numbers from this taxpayer funded evaluation ($80,000), the town board is asking to increase the levy in excess of the State Statutes.
I would suggest to the Board Members that they wait until the re-evaluation numbers are final, include the taxpayer windfall of $450,000 from the American Transmission Company along with the yearly use fees of nearly $50,000 and dedicate those to road re-construction only. Funds for the maintenance of the roads should come from the same sources that are currently employed.
Another heads up would to look for other resources for the maintenance of the roads other than contracting it to another governmental agency, try looking at toward the private sector that operates more efficiently than a large County operation.
Sep 7, 2008 at 10:36 a.m.
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1919eternal - Why are you blaming your Town Board for this? They identified a pending crisis, proposed a fiscally responsible solution and are giving the citizens the opportunity to decide if they want to accept that solution. Don’t shoot the messenger just because you don’t like the message.
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Maybe you should run for your Town Board. While you are patting yourself on the back and bragging to your buddies about how much money you saved them, you’d better be figuring out how to explain why you need them to come up with 10 time that amount when the roads deteriorate beyond repair and will need to be replaced. You also will need to rehearse how you rationalized the benefit of the immediate cost savings you and your buddies got to the surviving family members of those killed in car accidents due to your bad roads.
Sep 7, 2008 at 10:35 a.m.
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This is not the time for the board to present a huge tax increase to its residents. We are having a hard enough time as it is recovering from the flood. The drop in home values due to plant closings also effects everyone in the township. What a poor descision to try this now. Vote NO
Sep 7, 2008 at 10:31 a.m.
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I would also like to point out that a referendum is not free. It will add several thousand dollars to the cost of an election whether it passes or does not pass.
Sep 7, 2008 at 10:06 a.m.
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Local taxes are of most direct benefit to the people actually paying them. The reason that you are going to be seeing these referendums is that the state has been limiting the amount of increase in recent years with a percentage cap. A local budget deals with people, goods, and services just like any family budget. It should be obvious to anyone that 2% will not keep up with annual inflation for these items. The only solution is to put off costly improvements to infrastructure. You can do that for a few years, but eventually the chickens come home to roost and you have five or six large projects that must be done and no funding.
Sep 7, 2008 at 8:45 a.m.
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Good luck with that!! OK, lets spend the extra money we have on our taxes so we wont even be able to drive on these roads cause we cant afford gas anymore. My taxes will go up $232.00 on top of what the re-asessment will be.I'm sure Fulton told Accurate Appraisal to "pad" everyones asessment by a couple hundred bucks!! I think we ( sound minded folks here in Fulton twsp ) should run for town board and get these crooks packing!
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