Maintenance of main city streets, neighborhood streets, and overall ease of traveling through the city emerged as top priorities among respondents in the 2017 Community Survey. Street maintenance was also a top priority from the 2015 Community Survey.
What has changed since then is the city’s ability to fund street maintenance. In 2016, voters approved a 0.20% sales tax increase that is expected to generate $20 million over the next 10 years for street maintenance and Safe Routes to School projects. Street maintenance will account for 95% of the expenses from that additional revenue.
The tax began being collected in April, and the city anticipates bidding out the first street maintenance projects using this revenue source later this year. The revenue will not be used to hire additional city staff or purchase equipment, but will go directly to street improvement projects constructed by outside contractors. City crews will continue to repair streets as well.
The tax revenue will essentially provide double the amount of funding available each year to make street repairs, which means the city will be able to do double the work to address citizen concerns about the maintenance of major thoroughfares in the community, as well as neighborhood streets.
The 2017 Street Maintenance Program is currently underway.