Time to make a long-term street decision

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The rubber is about to hit the road, literally.
As early as next month, the Snyder City Council may call for an election for voters to decide how to pay for street improvements and maintenance. The city basically has four options, and if recent comments are any indication, the option of keeping on the same path is off the table.
That leaves three ways to pay for street upgrades. One is for the city to take on debt through bonds or certificates of obligation. Another is to re-direct sales taxes. 
The third option is to institute a street fee, a concept recently approved by Abilene voters.
The advantages of taking on debt are that the money would be available immediately and the payback could be spread over many years. 
This approach has its drawbacks, though. The streets the borrowed money paid for will probably need repairs and maintenance — meaning additional money — before the debt is paid back. Just like it doesn’t make sense for you and I to borrow more money than our purchase is worth, it doesn’t make any sense for the city to do that either. The city might be able to set a payback term closer to seven years, however, that kind of repayment schedule would require a massive property tax hike, something I’m not sure most of us would support.
Even over 20 years, we’re looking at a tax rate increase of roughly 25 cents per $100 valuation for the $20 million the city staff has been asked to fund.
Diverting sales taxes makes sense for a couple reasons, but also has some disadvantages. 
The likely target would be the money collected for the Development Corporation of Snyder (DCOS). Paying for the streets would be spread among more than just Snyder residents because anyone who shops in Snyder would help pay for the streets, which seems like an equitable way to go.
However, I agree with the city council members who said we don’t need to disband the DCOS. It does important work and while many of us disagreed with the former executive director’s approach, the task of bringing jobs and job training to Snyder is vital. As Vernon Clay said, it’s time to stop revisiting the past and focus on looking forward.
A street fee would provide the city with a steady stream of income, which would allow the city to develop a plan for dealing with the streets on an ongoing basis. 
The downside is that to accomplish what needs to be done, the fee would have to be steep. To raise $1 million a year, the city’s 4,500 utility customers would pay on average more than $18 per month. Most of us got our utility bill this week, so the impact on yourcalculatefigure. The city might weight the fee so that businesses pay a higher monthly fee than residents, but either way, utility bills would rise.
There are other details to work out, such as will the work be done in-house or will we hire outside contractors? What’s the plan going to be for prioritizing work — high-traffic streets, those in the worst shape or some other method? And how will we pay?
As someone who doesn’t know a backhoe from a skid steer, I’m not sure I’m best qualified to offer an opinion, but I think creating an in-house street department makes the most sense, as does issuing bonds to purchase equipment that department will need. From there, once the scope of annual work can be determined, a street fee would be the best way to ensure the money’s there to complete that work.
Council members were unanimous is stating that the public will make the final decision. Depending on how the council’s June 3 meeting goes, that day could come as soon as Nov. 5.

Bill Crist is the publisher of the Snyder Daily News. Comments about his column may be emailed to publisher@snyderdailynews.com.