Menu
Transportation sales tax on ballot Tuesday
Nevada voters first approved a one-half cent transportation sales tax on Feb. 7, 1997, and in the ensuing 20 years the money from that sales tax has been used to repair more than 34 miles of the 68 miles of streets in Nevada.
And on Tuesday the city of Nevada has a measure on the ballot for Nevada voters to re-authorize the transportation sales for another five years.
"This is not an increase, it won't raise the sales tax," Nevada City Manager JD Kehrman said Friday.
According to information the city provided, Nevada's total sales tax Of 7.725 percent is one of the lowest in the area. For example: Butler, 7.85 percent; El Dorado Springs, 8.225 percent; Fort Scott, Kan., 9.4 percent; Lamar, 7.725 percent; Carthage, 8.2 percent and Joplin, 8.075 percent.
Because the city pays for each year's street construction with money collected the previous year, it makes this a pay-as-you-go program, and because the tax must be renewed every five years, it makes it so the city cannot issue bonds to cover the construction, he said.
Between 2012 and 2016 the sales tax raised an average of $770,000 each year, and $500,000 of that money is earmarked for new street construction. The remaining $220,000 can be used for salary, equipment and other costs related to street construction, including sealing streets to make them last longer, Kehrman said.
While the street construction program is a city program, the selection of the streets to be paved each year is done by a committee of Nevada residents appointed by the city council.
The mayor's street committee, now the infrastructure board, and the sales tax were initiated by Ben Mendenhall when he was on the city council. Each fall the committee meets several times to discuss the streets that residents have requested, as well as others recommended by city employees and infrastructure committee members.
While paving streets and installing curb and guttering, is usually thought about in relation to transportation, this same work also helps control storm water run-off. It also must work closely with water and sewer line repair and replacement, he said.
"You don't want to resurface a street, only to need to dig it up the next year to replace or repair a water or sewer main," Kehrman said.
"The challenge is getting what is under the street fixed before the street is resurfaced," he said.
And when the city crews begin preparing the road for resurfacing, unexpected delays often appear. Sometimes they find a wet spot that must be repaired before it is paved, which adds time to the preparation.
"They've found old, intact manholes and abandoned water and sewer lines," Kehrman said.
He said that in 2010 the infrastructure committee and the city street department learned about the different qualities of asphalt that were available, and found that not all asphalt is equal.
"So we went to a thicker overlay, and a more durable mix. It raised the cost, but if we do this, we don't have to worry about the paving in the intersections failing before the rest of the street," he said.
The asphalt the city had been using in previous years was often damaged by school buses and trash trucks turning corners, he said.
"We've come a long way from 2011 in understanding asphalt and getting a good durable product that will last," he said.
"The support of the businesses and residents on the streets has been awesome. No one likes having their street torn up.
"The people have a high expectation of the program. I think that's why the program has been so successful, Kehrman said.