During a meeting Tuesday, May 22, the Clarkdale Town Council voted unanimously to send a decision to voters on Nov. 6 regarding a 10-year, $6 million bond.
The intention is to use the funds to pay for street repairs throughout Clarkdale over the next three years, beginning in spring 2019.
The decision came after a lengthy presentation by Public Works Director Maher Hazine. He argued that the costs of repairing the roads with the bond would end up saving money in the long run. He focused on how road deterioration tends to accelerate once roads get below a 60 percent maintenance level.
According to Hazine, 75 percent of a road’s lifespan is at higher than 60 percent quality, so the road project is intended to get all of Clarkdale’s roads at least in the 60 or 70 percent range, so that future road funding could be for maintenance, not repairs.
“For every dollar you that spend here to maintain the roadways, it will help you save anywhere between $6 and $10 for rehab and reconstruction,” Hazine said during his presentation. “We don’t want to be going through this again in five years, eight years, 10 years. Whatever that time frame is.”
Hazine asserted in his presentation that 77.43 percent of Clarkdale’s roads need advanced treatment, while the remaining roads could be serviced with normal maintenance. In the plan he put forward before the council, the $2 million a year spent over the next three years on roads would allow for road maintenance costs to be kept at a consistent $400,000 to $500,000 per year in future years, keeping the roads consistently at least 60 percent quality.
Paying for the bond would mean a property tax increase for the next 10 years. According to analysis by the accounting firm Stifel, Nicolaus, and Co., the cost to the taxpayer would be $231.24 in additional yearly property taxes for a residential home worth $100,000. The average home in Clarkdale is worth $152,260, which would be paying an additional $352.87 yearly as part of the property tax increase.
Commercial and agricultural property are assessed differently from residential property for tax purposes in Arizona. A $100,000 commercial property will be expected to pay an additional $416.23 in property taxes, while a $100,000 agricultural property will owe an added $346.86.
“I really hate to present [taxes] to the public, but I don’t know what options the town has at this point,” said Bob Backus, a member of the citizen committee that studied Clarkdale’s roads and unanimously recommended the general obligation bond. “There are certain responsibilities that you have as a community to maintain these roads. You’ve agreed to do that, so if you can’t find the money somewhere else, then there’s no other option but to put the taxes on people, and let them pay for it. They’re the ones using the roads.”
In addition to the bond, the town intends to begin transferring some of the money raised via the motor vehicle license tax away from the general fund, where it currently goes, and into the street maintenance fund. This will help keep streets in good condition, so they do not need to be repaired often. According to Town Manager Gayle Mabery, next year’s budget will see about half of the motor vehicle license tax money go toward streets, with a goal of transferring 100 percent of it to road maintenance by the Fiscal Year 2021 budget.
Mabery admitted that the impact that it will have on the general fund could mean financial issues that will need to be dealt with in the coming years. However, she also highlighted the importance of beginning road repair now and finding the money for that as soon as possible.
“The big issue here is whether or not the bond issue is approved,” Mabery said. “If the bond issue isn’t approved, then we have a much more challenging issue to deal with because we know that we have to make these repairs to the streets, and we have very limited ways to do that. If the bond issue is not something the public can support, then we have to go back to the drawing board and may have to look at sales tax options or other kinds of options to fund it.”
Jon Hecht can be reached at 634-8551 or email jhecht@larsonnewspapers.com
