The City of Monroe is looking at ways to raise revenue to maintain its transportation infrastructure without imposing special property tax assessments for street and sidewalk construction. Jim Myers, former city clerk, suggested in a letter to your newspaper a couple weeks ago that the city look into an annual city vehicle registration fee (wheel tax) with the revenue dedicated for transportation related purposes; i.e., streets, sidewalks, bike lanes. I think Mr. Myers' suggestion deserves further review and analysis prior to spending $40,000 on a feasibility study to establish a city Transportation Utility tax for the very same purpose.
The Wisconsin Department of Transportation (WisDOT) would collect the wheel tax for Monroe, keep an administrative fee of 10 cents per vehicle application and send the rest to the city. The fee would be added to the annual vehicle registration payment and apply to all automobile registration or truck registration at 8,000 pounds or less. A few of the cities that have recently adopted this type of vehicle registration fee are Milwaukee, Beloit and Mayville. Mayville, with a population of less than 5,500, just inaugurated a $10 per vehicle fee on April 1.
In sum, the advantage of this type of user fee is that it's administered by the state for a modest sum and doesn't require a new city bureaucracy to administer. In addition, this type of user fee would apply to all Monroe residents who have registered vehicles, not just property owners, which the utility tax targets. It would seem relatively simple for the city to estimate the number of registered vehicles in Monroe and determine what kind of revenues this fee would generate by contacting the WisDOT.
The Wisconsin Department of Transportation (WisDOT) would collect the wheel tax for Monroe, keep an administrative fee of 10 cents per vehicle application and send the rest to the city. The fee would be added to the annual vehicle registration payment and apply to all automobile registration or truck registration at 8,000 pounds or less. A few of the cities that have recently adopted this type of vehicle registration fee are Milwaukee, Beloit and Mayville. Mayville, with a population of less than 5,500, just inaugurated a $10 per vehicle fee on April 1.
In sum, the advantage of this type of user fee is that it's administered by the state for a modest sum and doesn't require a new city bureaucracy to administer. In addition, this type of user fee would apply to all Monroe residents who have registered vehicles, not just property owners, which the utility tax targets. It would seem relatively simple for the city to estimate the number of registered vehicles in Monroe and determine what kind of revenues this fee would generate by contacting the WisDOT.
