Election day is Nov. 7. Early voting runs from Oct. 23-Nov. 3.
The background
This tax was first approved as an eighth-cent dedication in 2003 and raised by voters to a quarter-cent dedication in 2007, said Rachel Reynolds, communication and public engagement manager for the city of Keller.
“It has been reauthorized by voters every four years since then, so it was last on the ballot in November 2019,” she said via email.
Explained
Reynolds said the sales tax revenue allocation is expected to generate approximately $2.36 million in the upcoming fiscal year, so roughly $9.5 million will be generated over a four-year timespan. For additional context, she said street maintenance is one of three sales and use tax allocations in Keller:
- Quarter-cent for street maintenance, which must be reauthorized every four years
- Quarter-cent for the Crime Control & Prevention District, which was reauthorized in 2021 for another 15 years
- Half-cent for the Keller Development Corporation, specifically for parks and recreation capital projects, which was approved in 1992 and does not have to be reauthorized
What you need to know
All of the funding from this sales tax allocation goes to street maintenance efforts, Reynolds said.
“In addition to repaving, that may include spot base repairs, work on curb and gutter or driveway aprons to adjust drainage, and bringing ramps up to current [Americans with Disabilities Act] standards,” she said.
But for repairs such as individual potholes, work is paid for through the general fund, she said.
Reynolds said there is no set number of streets that are repaired or maintained each year because the city has to manage so many variables, such as budget, road length/damage, cost of materials and so on.
As far as the streets that get attention, streets are selected through “a combination of Pavement Condition Index data and, more recently, damaged streets’ proximity to other roads with similarly low scores,” Reynolds said. PCI analyzes the viability of streets’ pavements.
“For many years, our public works team focused exclusively on PCI scores to build their street maintenance packages,” she said. “To avoid construction fatigue for residents, though, we’re shifting toward tackling several lower-scoring streets in a single neighborhood as part of a road package so that we’re not disturbing those neighborhoods multiple times in subsequent years.”
What else?
Since voters last reauthorized this sales tax allocation in November 2019, city leaders have used it to invest in 15 residential streets, Reynolds said. Another nine streets are included in the street maintenance package under design that will begin construction during the upcoming fiscal year, she said.
Reynolds said, as a general reminder, this sales tax allocation is only a portion of the funding the city puts toward its roads every year, explaining the proposed fiscal year 2023-24 budget includes $16.2 million in road projects, and the five-year capital improvement plan anticipates $49.3 million in street investments.
“Funding a portion of our road maintenance through sales tax revenue allows those who don’t live in our community but enjoy our businesses to contribute to our infrastructure,” she said.
