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Belmont County Commission Raises License Plate Taxes

ST. CLAIRSVILLE — Belmont County residents will pay more for their license plates in 2019.

After much discussion and two required public hearings, the Belmont County Board of Commissioners passed three $5 permissive tax levies on vehicle registrations during its Wednesday meeting. The fees will generate income for the county engineer’s budget, which the county uses to pay for work on roads and bridges. Depending on where in the county a resident lives, the tax increase means that license plates will be as much as $15 more in January 2019 than they were in January 2018.

The board pledged to continue pursuing other sources of money for the infrastructure.

County Engineer Terry Lively has said the county has had the same $5 fee for license plates since the late 1960s. That means residents have paid at least $5 more than the state base rate for the past 50 years. The current state base rate is $34.50 for cars and $49.50 for trucks. The state has given counties the authority to add additional $5 levies. However, townships, incorporated villages and cities also are able to impose certain $5 fees, some of which can cancel out the county’s options.

Commissioners J.P. Dutton, Josh Meyer and Mark Thomas voted unanimously.

“These decisions are based on numbers and facts,” Dutton said. “It was not an easy (decision) by any stretch.”

He said Lively’s $5 million budget came in part from the gasoline tax and in part from the original $5 permissive vehicle registration tax. Although the gas tax comes from federal and state tax dollars, Ohio’s gas tax has not seen an increase in the past 12 years. Meanwhile, Thomas said the federal gas tax has not been raised since 1993.

Rather than alter the gas tax, Dutton said the state has permitted the counties to impose additional $5 increments on license plate fees.

“Putting, really, the onus on counties to make these difficult decisions, which is what the board is doing today,” he said. “Belmont County has never enacted (permissive vehicle registration taxes) beyond the original 1968 fee increment until today.”

He said the engineer’s budget has remained the same for more than a decade while cost of materials has increased and fuel efficiency has improved.

“Of our 300 miles of roads, 200 miles are paved,” said Dutton. “To maintain a constant paving program…at current prices of roughly $100,000 a mile, this means the engineer would need a budget (of) roughly $2 million every year just for a resurfacing program. We do not currently have a resurfacing program. We have not had one since 2009.”

Dutton also said that $2 million does not take into account future growth, bridge repairs and replacements or damage from slips. With slip repair the priority, Lively said he likely will use the additional funds the new fees will generate as local matches of 12.5 percent for federal emergency repair assistance.

He said although the state has said it believes the county will get only about $800,000 in additional revenue as a result of increasing the permissive taxes, the extra money will put the county in a stronger position to ask state and federal officials to increase its funds.

“We can honestly tell the state and federal government, with hard and concrete data, that we as a community have made the tough, difficult decisions,” he said. “We believe this will strengthen our case on outside funding…We are working on a new campaign requesting that at least a portion of those (severance tax) funds (collected on oil and gas activities) be made available to oil and gas counties for infrastructure.”

The board also will look into further local sources.

“This action today is not going to be the final action from the board on this issue,” said Lively who also said the board will begin working on a complimentary option to fill the need. “This will not be a levy or additional taxes and fees. We commit that we will work to find additional assistance within the confines of existing county finances.”

Although board members could not identify possible sources of revenue on Wednesday, Dutton said commissioners intend to provide a more detailed report by the end of summer at the latest.

“This wasn’t an easy decision,” Meyer said. “At the end of the day, this is the right thing to do for Belmont County. No one wants their fees raised — I don’t want my fees raised — but when something has been neglected on the county’s part for nearly 50 years … Today we took a small step to helping the engineer’s office.

“Today’s decision was a decision of necessity, not desire,” said Thomas, who also said the input from the public and the township trustees was welcome.

He said the board respected everyone who voiced opposition to the increase.

“I go back and respectfully challenge: if we don’t do this, what do we do?” he asked.

Thomas concurred with the other commissioners while saying the board will continue its efforts to bring money in from Columbus.

“(This is) a desperate plea to the Feds and to the state to understand what local government in Ohio is facing,” Thomas said. “The severance tax that’s being pulled out of this ground by oil and gas companies is not coming back to Belmont County to help fix our roads.”

Pease Township Trustee Mike Bianconi and Pultney Township Trustee Frank Shaffer reaffirmed their support of the move. Lively called the increase a necessary act of political courage.

Frank Papini, of St. Clairsville, who had brought up the burden of added fees on individuals of fixed income during prior meetings, said Wednesday he understood the commissioners’ decision and urged them to continue looking for further funds.

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