Vehicle registration went up $2 just a few months ago now the County wants more! They want up to $10 more! I keep saying, if we the people don't get control of these fools soon, we will loose everything we own! They just keep taking and taking! Not just money but our freedom too!
Taken from the HJ News 9/20/06
Vehicle registration fees face increase By Charles Geraci
There is talk in the county of tacking another fee — as high as $10 — onto motor vehicle registrations, this time to purchase rights-of-way for future roads and extend existing ones.
In May, the Cache County Council approved a $2 Air Quality Control Fee assessed when each motorized vehicle is registered. The body will begin deliberations on the corridor preservation fee Tuesday.
Jeff Gilbert, transportation planner for the Cache Metropolitan Planning Organization, introduced the potential fee to the Cache Valley Regional Council Monday, noting that Senate Bill 8, passed by the Utah Legislature last year, allows counties to impose a vehicle registration fee, ranging from $1 to $10, to purchase transportation corridors. Gilbert told The Herald Journal Wednesday that he favors the fee being enacted for the full amount. If that occurs, approximately $732,873 would be generated annually, based on 2004 vehicle registration data, Gilbert said.
“When we double the population in this valley, we’re going to certainly need more road and transit corridors; there’s no doubt about it,” he said. “And the taxpayers, one way or the other, are going to pay for those corridors. The question that’s before us is simply when and how much they will pay.”
According to the CMPO’s long-range plan, more than 18 miles of new transportation corridor rights-of-way will need to be purchased in the next 30 years in the Logan Urbanized Area, which consists of ten municipalities from Smithfield to Wellsville, as well as part of unincorporated Cache County. In addition, the plan specifies that rights-of-way for road expansion will be needed on another 11 miles of existing roads.
With real estate prices all but certain to rise in the coming years, Gilbert said the taxpayer will actually save money in the long run if the fee is ultimately adopted by the County Council.
“If we wait until development pressures sort of engulf those areas and property values escalate, the taxpayer is going to pay a lot more than if they buy it now when the property is cheaper and portions of these corridors are relatively undeveloped.”
But some elected officials, such as Logan Mayor Randy Watts, say a $10 fee is too steep.
“There’s got to definitely be some more discussion on how we implement it, how we distribute the monies,” Watts said.
Though the County Council could impose the fee, the funds would be administered by a “Council of Government (COG),” which would be comprised of the mayors from each municipality in Cache County and the County Council.
Watts added it will be important to ensure that both the cities and the county are adequately represented on the governing body.
The CMPO would help establish priorities for corridor preservation in the Logan Urbanized Area, but the COG would have the final say over where the revenues go, and could also allocate funds for roads outside the CMPO’s jurisdiction.
County Councilman Craig Petersen said that the road system in the county will need to be expanded, and officials should begin planning for that now.
“This could be the best money the taxpayer ever spends,” Gilbert added. “It has the potential, long-term, of saving millions of dollars.” |