Carson City to prioritize local roads pending voter approval

Carson City Public Works personnel are preparing for the possibility voters may approve two tax measures on the Nov. 5 ballot to fund local roads.

A month before the election, such preparation is not a foregone conclusion, but during an educational presentation Monday in the community center board room, city staff explained how an estimated $7 million a year in new revenue would go to local roads should voters embrace the measures.

“What can we get with the $7 million? We estimate we can do around four to five miles per year of additional local road projects, and that will be a combination of preservation — keeping the good roads good — and reconstruction — taking care of the worst roads and rebuilding them to new condition,” said Transportation Manager Chris Martinovich.

More than 20 members of the public and several elected officials attended the forum, and about as many questions were directed toward Martinovich during a question-and-answer session after he gave a formal presentation.

In that presentation, Martinovich showed a priority list for local roads. Public Works currently switches between five performance districts each year for road projects. Regional road projects, which qualify for federal grants, are reviewed by the Carson City Regional Transportation Commission annually. If the November ballot measures pass, the same process would be applied to local roads, those neighborhood streets that do not qualify for federal grants but comprise approximately 203 miles of the city’s 286-mile road network, according to the city.

Adams, Park and John streets, Beverly Drive and the Carriage Crest Drive area near Mark Twain Elementary were local roads recently reviewed by the RTC for improvements in performance district 2. They were presented Monday night with the caveat funding for the projects is theoretical at this point.

Of the Carriage Crest neighborhood, Martinovich added, “which if you’ve ever been in that neighborhood, those roads are becoming little ocean waves, so there is definitely need of reconstruction.”

Running the same scenario five years out, Martinovich showed, theoretical district 3 local road projects could include streets near Empire Elementary and Empire Ranch Golf Course and streets near Eagle Valley Middle School and the Schulz Ranch area.

District 4 local road projects could include streets east of Seeliger Elementary, those between Koontz Lane and Clearview Drive and some local roads in the downtown area.

District 5 improvements could include streets downtown as well as those around Carson Middle School and in the Longview and Lakeview areas. Future district 1 improvements could include streets between Lompa Lane and Airport Road, those near College Parkway and Highway 50, streets in the northeast industrial area of the city and those in the Northgate Lane and College Parkway area.

Questions from the public were diverse, such as what pavement condition of streets residents would accept, e.g., fair or poor, and how much city-owned EV charging stations generate for roads.

“EV charging stations are not a significant source,” said Martinovich, estimating revenue of $80-$100 month. “We do report that. It goes to the street maintenance fund, so it’s used for street maintenance activities.”

The two tax measures that supervisors focused on earlier this year and approved for the ballot are a .25 percent sales tax that would capture revenue from visitors and residents and a supplemental government services tax collected at the DMV during vehicle registration. Supervisors restricted the funding from both proposals to local roads.

The latter measure, the supplemental GST, would levy 1 cent of every dollar for up to 35 percent of a vehicle’s value, and the amount would decrease with depreciation. The city has used the example of a new $50,000 vehicle to illustrate the tax. In the first year, a resident with that vehicle would pay $175 for the new tax during registration. After year nine, only 15 percent of the full tax amount would be collected, totaling $26.25.

Kathleen Beasley of east Carson worried about the added cost to what she already pays for a new vehicle including the existing governmental services tax. The Nevada Department of Motor Vehicle’s website states the GST (which is 4 cents for each dollar of valuation) “funds local governments, school districts and the state General Fund.” According to city staff, Carson’s portion of the basic GST is part of consolidated taxes coming into the city’s general fund.

“Wow, it’s a little hard for citizens to want to do something about a situation when the money they’re already paying to a vehicle isn’t going to roads,” Beasley said Monday. “That’s a real problem, and voting for yes on something that you now have explained will cost me $175 beyond the $400 makes it an even bigger problem.”

James Hardiman, manager of Carson-based Finest Fence, said he wanted to better understand why the city doesn’t have money for local roads.

“I don’t think any one of us want to give more money if we think the money is not being spent properly,” he said.

Fuels taxes make up the majority of the city’s current roadway funding, and Martinovich noted: “Again, it goes back to the amount of dollars that were generated 20 or 25 years ago are not keeping up with the costs of things today.”

Public works previously provided data showing local gas tax revenue growing by 25 percent from 2000 to 2022 and construction costs growing by 123 precent during the same time.

RTC member Gregory Novak, who moderated the event, pointed out the federal gas tax hasn’t been raised since 1993.

“The Highway Trust Fund, where it goes, that only brings in about $40 billion a year, so for the last few years, General Fund, your income tax dollars, have been coming back as federal highway dollars,” he said.

Since 2022, public works has estimated the shortfall in Carson City — the gap between current funding and maintenance needs of the existing network — is $21 million a year. According to pavement data from the department, 82 percent of the city’s regional roads are in fair, satisfactory or good condition. That percentage drops to 53.5 percent for local roads, meaning nearly half of local roads are in the poor, very poor, serious or failed category regarding pavement condition.

Voters will soon decide the fate of local road funding as early voting begins Oct. 19. A proposed increase in the gas tax in 2016 failed, but a 5-cent-per-gallon diesel tax in 2022 passed.

More information, including Monday’s presentation, is available online: https://www.carson.org/government/departments-g-z/public-works/preserve-carson-city-roads