Photo by Karim Shamsi-Basha.
Construction is taking place on Overton Road in Vestavia Hills.
While two state representatives from Vestavia Hills opposed the recently-passed gas tax, city leaders said it will help ensure that the city is able to pave almost 8 miles of city streets each year, in keeping with their long-term paving plan.
City Manager Jeff Downes said the city’s goal is to pave 7.7 miles of city streets per year, with each street being repaved once every 20 years. The city manages 154 miles of roadway, Downes said, with streets ranging in condition from excellent to very poor.
The city has always relied on gas tax revenue to fund the repaving of city streets, and the goal of paving 7.7 miles costs about $847,000 per year, Downes said. However, the amount of money that was coming in was not going to be enough to pave more than 3 miles of roads, he said, as the costs have increased in the past few years.
If the gas tax had not passed, Downes said the city would have to allocate about $500,000 out of its general fund to pay for the road resurfacing.
“It comes at a cost,” Downes said.
While the money in the general fund would not have had a specific purpose, Downes said the loss of that money to pay for road improvements would be an “opportunity cost” if the city needed to make upgrades or pursue improvements in other areas, including the police or fire departments.
The gas tax was signed into law by Governor Kay Ivey in March, and Downes said once the tax has reached its full effect in three years, the city expects to receive about $250,000 in additional funding, meaning $250,000 will have to be appropriated from the general fund.
After one year with the first increase, Downes said the city expects to receive $146,000 in fiscal year 2020 and $195,000 in fiscal year 2021, with the full amount coming in fiscal year 2022.
A six-cent per gallon increase will come later this year and could increase by a penny for the next one to two years, depending on the national Highway Construction Cost Index, according to the Associated Press.
While some of the main roads in Vestavia are not managed by the city, including Shades Crest Road, U.S. 31 and Massey Road, the work that can now be done with this funding will be visible to residents, Downes said.
The tax is a use tax, meaning it’s not mandatory like income tax. However, Downes said gas, like groceries, tends to be less discretionary, as virtually everyone drives and the money they spend on gas remains relatively constant.
The tax was not passed without controversy, but only 26 legislators voted against it. Two of those legislators voting no were David Wheeler and Jim Carns from Vestavia Hills. Sen. Jabo Waggoner, also from Vestavia, voted yes.
Carns and Waggoner did not respond to a request for comment.
Wheeler said he was concerned with how quickly the bill moved through the state legislature, as legislators only had 72 hours before the process started to examine the bill.
Wheeler said he also doesn’t believe legislators are elected to institute a “perpetual tax,” and said cities like Vestavia could have tried to raise taxes on their own.
“I have to vote [for] what I think are the wishes of all of my constituents,” Wheeler said. “It’s not something I took lightly.”
Downes said if the tax wasn’t passed, the city’s services would have decreased. In past resident surveys, road conditions were named as one of Vestavia residents’ top priorities.
