The Delaware County Council is considering a new way to provide more funding for street repairs in Muncie, Delaware County and surrounding towns -- a wheel tax.
If the council passes the legislation, a tax would be applied to all cars, trucks, tractors, recreational vehicles, trailers and semitrailers registered with the Bureau of Motor Vehicles in Delaware County.
The County Council passed the proposal for the tax at its May 24 meeting but will not make a final decision until its June 28 meeting, when it will most likely vote to approve the new tax, Joe Russell, president of the County Council, said.
The only vehicles that will not be taxed are those owned by the state of Indiana, a state agency or religious and nonprofit organizations.
Drivers could pay from $5 to $40 per car or truck for the tax depending on how much their vehicles weigh, according to Indiana state codes. At the time the tax is passed, the County Council will also determine what tax rate would be applied to certain vehicles.
Residents would pay the new tax when they register their cars and trucks with the BMV.
Of Indiana's 92 counties, only 37 currently have wheel taxes similar to the one proposed for Delaware County.
The County Council expects the new tax to bring in about $2 million for Delaware County, which will be divided among street departments in Muncie, Yorktown, Albany and other towns around the county, Russell said.
Any money raised by the tax would only be used to fix roads and could not be used for salaries, raises or buying new vehicles, according to Indiana state codes.
Of the expected $2 million, about $900,000 would go to county-road repairs, $800,000 to repairs within Muncie city limits and the rest to the small towns in the county.
Repairs for roads are normally funded by the state's gas tax, which gives about $600,000 to Muncie and the county, but recently that funding has dwindled because more money is being held at the state level, Russell said.
The Muncie Street Department does not do complete repaving of city streets, but the tax could relieve some of the burden placed on the department to fix potholes, Doug Brown, Muncie street commissioner, said.
There could be a trickle-down effect if the tax generates enough money for roads to be repaved because the city's Street Department would then have more time and resources to focus on some of the more neglected roads in the city, Brown said.
Although the majority of Ball State students do not have vehicles registered in Delaware County, they could still see the benefits of the new tax.
Nick Macrelli, Ball State junior, is one of the students who would have to pay this new tax because his truck is registered in Delaware County. He doesn't mind paying the extra money, though, if it means there's a chance that Muncie will have roads without holes in them, he said.
"I'm fine with this because the roads down here suck," Macrelli said.
Because of the condition of Muncie roads, a lot of people have stories about needing to fix rims or front-end alignment, Russell said. He sees the tax as being almost like an insurance program because drivers will pay a small annual fee in return for having their roads maintained better.
"People don't like taxes, and they don't like bad roads, so they're choosing between the lesser of two evils," Russell said.
While there are some council members who do not support the tax proposal, other council members could not be reached for comment.
Anyone with concerns about the tax proposal should contact county council members, he said.
Delaware County has 824 miles of roads to maintain, but only about 20 miles of road can be worked on each year because of the lack of funding, Russell said.
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