EVERETT — People living within city limits soon will start paying an additional $20 fee when they get their new car tabs.
The fee will start showing up on renewal notices in March, city communications director Meghan Pembroke said.
The car tab fee ordinance was enacted by the Everett City Council in 2014 as part of a slate of budget-balancing measures designed to bridge a growing deficit.
The car tab fee is collected through a mechanism called a Transportation Benefit District, governed by the City Council, which has the authority to levy taxes to pay for road work.
On Feb. 11, the council approved the year’s slate of street overlay projects.
This year’s road repair budget includes $600,000 that the city estimates it will bring in from the new car tab fees in 2014. In subsequent years, the city estimates it will bring in $1.2 million per year.
The city has budgeted a total of $4.8 million for street overlay work this year, more than twice last year’s $1.59 million.
Part of the increase is due to the addition of estimated car tab fees, but it also includes $1 million in federal grant money, $500,000 from Snohomish County and $50,000 from the state Department of Transportation.
Even without those additional sources of revenue, the city still has set aside $2.75 million from its own funds.
“We’re trying to ramp up our level of maintenance,” city engineer Ryan Sass said.
The overlay program is designed to maintain city streets before they completely degrade and need to be completely rebuilt, he said.
After several years of tight finances, the city is able to increase regular maintenance, Sass said.
“This if the first year we’re trying to catch up,” Sass said. “It’s very hard to catch up if you’re ever behind that point.”
The largest single project on 2015’s list includes overlaying Airport Road between West Casino Road and Evergreen Way. Short segments of 100th Street Southwest off Airport Road and 112th Street SW off Evergreen also are in the area.
This project includes sections of Airport Road that are owned by the county and state, which is why they are contributing funding to the project, Sass said.
Other street overlay projects on the list include Beverly Lane between Pecks Drive and Madison Street, Lake Street in the Pinehurst/Beverly Park neighborhood, Hardeson Road between Sievers-Duecy Boulevard and West Casino Road, a section of Larimer Road north of Wood Creek, sections of 102nd Street SE and 110th Street SE in the Silver Lake neighborhood, and three sections of Evergreen Way (from 46th to 52nd Streets SE, from 75th Street SE to Highway 526, and from Fourth Ave. wW to 100th Street SW).
The job will be put out to bid in February or March, Sass said, with the work scheduled to start in the summer.
Chris Winters: 425-374-4165; cwinters@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @Chris_At_Herald.
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