Under the current municipal funding system, it could take 30 years to repair all of Toledo’s roads that need attention, a city official told councilmen on Monday.
In fact, of the 1,200 lane miles of residential roads in the city, at least two-thirds need some sort of treatment, said transportation department director Doug Stephens, who spoke at Toledo City Council’s Streets, Public Services and Utilities Committee meeting.
“Obviously it would take quite a few years to come up with that money and quite a few years to actually be able to physically do that kind of work,” he told the committee Monday.
In addition, the city could spend $500 million on road repair to get it all done between road resurfacing work. That includes reconstruction of an entire road, reclamation involving repair work done on stone or asphalt, and resurfacing, which is replacing the first 3 inches of road surface, he said.
After approximately 15 years of operating with few funds to repair a sparse number of Toledo’s residential roads, voters approved the tax road improvement fund in 2020. That is a four-year, 0.25 percent income tax dedicated to the sole purpose of bolstering the residential street repair work, he said.
In 2022, 121 roads and 51.37 lane miles were resurfaced through the program. This year, 105 residential roads of 45.67 lane miles are slated for repair at a projected cost of $25.4 million, Mr. Stephens said.
When it comes to residential roads, local tax dollars being the only funding source came under scrutiny in December. That is when Mr. Stephens requested approval to use a portion of that tax to cover office expenses for the city’s Division of Engineering and Construction Management.
Toledo deputy mayor Abby Arnold told council on Monday that the portion in question, which is being allocated to rental fees, is $39,150 annually and represents 0.13 percent of the road tax fund.
“I’ve heard that Toledoans didn’t understand that this is what the mayor meant when he said that all of this money is going to roads,” Ms. Arnold said. “Well, I personally think that is an insult to Toledoans. I know that Toledoans are smart. And I know that Toledoans understand that you can’t build a road without an engineer to design it and that they can’t stand on the side of the road when they design it.”
Of the total $28.7 million roadway tax revenue this year, $1.27 million is being allocated to cover operating costs related to engineering project support, she said. That amount represents 4.4 percent of that tax and is needed to cover project support.
“The industry standard for project support is at least 10 to 15 percent of the overall project costs, so we are extremely conservative by that measure,” she said.
Those costs could be covered by other funds such as the capital improvement fund, which would adversely affect funding needed for things such as fire station repair or the general fund, which has a structural deficit, she said.
“We have taken great care to ensure that we could spread this money as far as possible, so it’s disappointing that the narrative has been created to say otherwise,” she said.
When the issue came before the council in December, several constituents reached out and voiced concern over the spending, Councilman Katie Moline said Monday.
“The only narrative that changed is what was promised that all of the tax dollars that came through that road improvement fund would be used for roads only,” Ms. Moline said. “Going back to my constituents, do I tell them that they are wrong? That they misunderstood what was promised to them? I think that needs to be clarified moving forward.”
Ms. Arnold said that the administration cannot legally present the same ordinance. But a similar ordinance related to rental fee funding using road tax revenue will be presented again to council, she said.
In addition, based on the amount of residential road repair work needed, and the fact that funding for such work seems only possible through local tax funding, voters likely will be asked to renew the tax, Ms. Arnold said.
“It is pretty clear that the four years was never intended to fix all of the roads,” she said. “We know that the problem is much greater than that. In order to continue at this level, there will need to be additional funding to do that.”
First Published January 10, 2023, 1:34 a.m.
