Amid concerns from residents that taxes might be slapped on other parts of a car and suggestions such as laying off more county employees instead of seeking more income, Kosciusko County Council passed a wheel tax and surtax during a special meeting Thursday. Council voted 5-1 in favor of the $25 yearly surtax on vehicles below 11,000 pounds and wheel tax of $40 on larger vehicles. Councilman Jon Fussle voted against the taxes, as he did during the regular June 12 session, requiring the special meet. Councilman Doug Heinisch was absent. The county will start collecting the money in January and receiving it in 2016. The term of the taxes is 20 years – which is how long it will take the county to get to where it needs to be on its roads, council President Bob Sanders observed – and council will review them every May. The taxes are expected to generate about $2 million a year, of which $600,000 will go to towns in Kosciusko. They were proposed as a dedicated source of funding for the county highway department, which has been supplemented from other funds for several years. As such. the money will be enough to only maintain existing roads, Mark Dobson, president of the Warsaw Kosciusko County Chamber of Commerce, said during supportive remarks before the vote – other funding would have to be found for new development. “We have a multi-billion dollar industry here and we still have dirt roads,” commented Warsaw resident and state house candidate Michael Stinfer, also noting he was against the taxes until he reviewed the data. “If we do not pass this, I think we’re going to be irresponsible as a city.” Also speaking in favor from the audience was Kip Tom, owner of Tom Farms and member of the Indiana Economic Development Corp. Board. He observed that 45 counties have embraced the wheel tax since the state implemented it 30 years ago and said Indiana counties have won or lost new business based on whether they had such taxes to provide for infrastructure. Many arguments against the taxes centered on whether the fees were equitable, with passenger vehicles compared to everything from big trucks and farm machinery to Amish buggies. Others questioned county use of its money, or said that, if there had to be a tax, they would prefer a shorter term. Pierceton resident Rick Wagner twice drew applause from the packed audience when he asked whether a tax on headlights would follow the wheel tax; and when he said he was glad the federal government turned down the county’s request for more than $370,000 in disaster aid for snow cleanup costs, saying the county “shouldn’t have incurred the cost to begin with” and that it plowed the roads too often and inefficiently. There were other numbers tossed around in remarks from residents and councilmen in favor of or opposed to the taxes: It would take 300 years at the current rate to re-asphalt all the roads in the county, said Councilman Jon Garber. A new driver would pay $149,000 over 50 years if he owned two cars and the taxes lasted that long, observed Fussle. He also noted that, to be truly equitable based on road wear, the owner of an 80,000-pound truck would pay $9,600 and a passenger vehicle $1. Leesburg resident Jim Newcombe remarked on the other hand that a passenger vehicle owner might pay $108 a year in gas tax while a semi-truck driver would pay $800. Councilman Jim Moyer said he supported the taxes because the county has seen a $1 billion drop in net assessed value since 2008, while, as Councilman Larry Teghtmeyer observed, costs for road work and machinery have multiplied – a dump truck that cost the county $80,000 only recently is now priced at $140,000, he said. “I find this a distasteful way to raise revenue ... I would rather have something else, but we have a responsibility,” Teghtmeyer said. “This is the only option. The Association of Indiana Counties has lobbied (the state) for years, and the response has always been, ‘We gave you the mechanism to raise funds, and that’s the wheel tax.’ There is no other option to the size of need we have.”
