The details
Crain shared a statement dated May 13 informing residents that council “will not levy a street maintenance fee on home and business owners.”
“I was clear with staff that until we have a serious conversation involving budget austerity, I would not support any such fee,” Crain posted on Facebook. “The city absolutely needs to invest in infrastructure, but I expect that to be done within the confines of the current budget and not an extra fee.”
According to city documents, out of the top 10 cities by population in Texas, Fort Worth offers residents city services at the second-lowest rate.
The backstory
During a March 5 work session, city staff presented council members with several options to increase funding for street maintenance.
“The challenge that we have is that this [funding] target keeps moving on us, both with growth and price increases,” said Lane Zarate, transportation and public works assistant director.
She said population increase results in an increase in development, which in turn increases the demand for transportation services and street maintenance citywide. In terms of inflation, while the city has been increasing street maintenance funding, it hasn’t been able to keep up with rising contract costs.
“The story that this tells is two-fold,” Zarate said. “The first is that our current maintenance funding is not sufficient to prevent [further] deterioration. Second, the impact of deferred maintenance impacts everybody.”
If adopted, the city would have joined 12 other cities in Texas that have begun using street maintenance fees.
