- Millcreek is considering a road-use fee to address declining gas tax revenues.
- The mayor highlights the need for proactive road maintenance to avoid costly repairs.
- Residents are invited to discuss the proposal at an open house on Monday.
MILLCREEK — In light of diminishing gas tax revenues and the need to address crumbling road infrastructure, Millcreek is considering the implementation of a road-use fee to help fill the funding gap.
About a dozen cities in Utah already have a transportation utility fee in place to fund needed infrastructure improvements and general road maintenance without raising property taxes.
Millcreek could be the next city to implement the measure.
When the city was formally incorporated in late 2016, it came with 179 miles of aging pavement that were already in need of repairs.
According to Mayor Cheri Jackson, the roads varied in their conditions, though she said many were in pretty poor shape.
"I mean, it's very expensive to repair roads, and as Millcreek wasn't our own entity, we weren't able to really advocate and push for a lot of the road maintenance," she said. "So we inherited a big problem and we've been trying to chip away at it over the last almost 10 years of our incorporation — but it's very, very expensive."
Jackson said the city often hears from residents who have voiced grievances about issues with some of Millcreek's road infrastructure.
"Road complaints make up 80% of the complaints that we get from residents. So we know it's a big issue that they don't like the roads, but we want to know what they want us to do to fix them," she said.
Numerous cities throughout the Wasatch Front — beginning with Provo more than a decade ago — started implementing road fees to combat declining gas tax revenues that municipalities would normally use to tackle road maintenance and repairs.
"As cars are more fuel efficient, so they don't use as much gas, we have more electric vehicles, which don't use any gas, and so we're getting less money to repair our roads, while at the same time, the cost of road repair is going up," said Jackson.
If Millcreek were to approve the measure, a monthly fee would be collected from not only residents, but all property owners, including those that are tax-exempt. And that would more than likely be reflected on their power bill beginning later this year.
"If implemented, everyone could expect a shift from reactive, short-term fixes to a more proactive approach. With steady funding, the city could prioritize pavement preservation, addressing aging road infrastructure before it becomes a costly reconstruction project," an explanation of the proposed measure on the city's website reads.
Millcreek hasn't decided whether to implement the transportation utility fee, as the city has worked to gather community input through a series of public meetings over the past two months.
The city is also considering other measures to tackle its road woes, including issuing a bond or continuing to use the gas tax supplement.
"But the problem is that we have found it just isn't enough," Jackson told KSL. "It's just not keeping up with our road maintenance needs and our roads are deteriorating faster than we can take care of them."
The public is invited to Millcreek's next open house on Monday, from 5 to 7 p.m., at City Hall to discuss possible options.
Jackson said city leaders want the community to engage with them on the measure so an informed decision can be made on how to move forward.
"I would encourage residents to come to our open house, to communicate with the City Council — with me through email, or give us a call because this affects all of us, and this is a big deal when we're looking at charging our residents more money, and we want to hear from them," she said.
More information on the road fee study can be found here.
