Richland creates transportation district to fund new bridge, road repairs

Vehicle owners in Richland are closer to paying a new $20 annual car tab fee to fund a new bridge and street repairs.

The Richland City Council took the first step Tuesday night, voting 6-0 to create a Transportation Benefit District. Sandra Kent was absent.

Tuesday’s vote was a first reading, and it follows a previous public hearing where many speakers opposed the concept. The plan won’t become law until the council passes it on second reading at a future session.

The second step, creating the new fee, will be discussed later this spring, officials said.

Mayor Bob Thompson has said charging a license renewal fee is the most direct way to raise money the city needs to complete the funding for the $38 million Duportail Bridge project and to bolster badly needed road maintenance.

Councilwoman Dori Luzzo Gilmour, who originally was skeptical of the plan, voted in support Tuesday.

“I understand people don’t want to pay for things, but we have to fix our roads,” she said.

If approved, the fee will be imposed on car tabs beginning in 2018. The city has pledged to keep the tab fee at $20 and to stop collecting it in 20 years, when bonds to support the Duportail Bridge are repaid. That commitment is not binding on future councils.

The city joins about 90 jurisdictions statewide that have established transportation districts to carry out transportation projects. Prosser created one in 2009 and levies a $20 fee. Othello established one last year and will ask voters in November to pay for it with a two-tenths of a percent sales tax.

The districts are typically funded either by a sales tax, which requires a ballot measure, or a car tab fee, which needs just a council vote.

Richland is marketing the transportation district as an elegant solution to one of its thorniest challenges — funding transportation infrastructure. Levying the fee on vehicles puts the cost squarely on the main users of its roads and bridges.

The fee will support about $4 million in bonds the city says it must sell to complete the funding package for the Duportail project. It needs to have the complete funding in place this year to qualify for $20 million in state money available this summer.

The city is shooting to break ground on the bridge next year and to open it by 2020.

Also, it sees the car tab fee as a way to pay for more street maintenance. It spends $1.2 million annually, but studies indicate that’s not enough to prevent deterioration.

The $20 fee levied on about 40,000 vehicles registered to Richland addresses would raise about $850,000 in 2018.

The city would devote $340,000 a year to pay the bonds it plans to issue to fund the bridge project. The remaining $510,000 would be steered toward the pavement preservation program.

Citizen reaction was mixed at a Feb. 21 hearing, where three of the seven council members were absent, including Mayor Bob Thompson.

Bridge supporters called $20 a reasonable amount to pay in return for the bridge and improved roads.

But the overwhelming response came from critics who said the fee falls too heavily on those with restricted incomes.

Many questioned the need for the Duportail bridge, questioning whether it will relieve traffic issues on the Highway 240 bypass or on George Washington Way.

This story was originally published March 7, 2017 at 9:10 PM with the headline "Richland creates transportation district to fund new bridge, road repairs."