They do they do even the best full request.

I call to order the May 21st meeting of the Toledo City Council Transportation Committee.

Clerk, please call the roll.

Driscoll?

Here.

Hobbs, Gaddis.

Here, Comives.

Martinez.

Sarantu.

Here.

Williams for present.

We're gonna have a presentation from the administration about the proposed legislation that will be voted on next week.

If any members from the public want to uh do public comment, we'll do that at the end after the presentation and questions from members.

And if so, uh there's a sign-up sheet on the podium, and uh we'll have to take your comments at the end.

Without further ado, we'll turn it over to the administration.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, Chair Driscoll, members of council, Megan Robeson, chief of operations for the city of Toledo today.

Melanie Campbell, director of finance, and Jeremy McLizac, uh Deputy Director of Public Works are joining me.

Uh thank you for having us today to discuss the vehicle registration permissive tax.

Um, as we mentioned at the agenda review, the legislation that is currently in committee allows us to enact an annual license plate fee upon the operation of motor vehicles.

Under the Ohio Revised Code section on permissive vehicle motor tax, municipalities can add a five-dollar license fee to license plates within the taxing district.

There are usage required or usage restrictions associated with the fee, and it must be used for planning, construction, maintenance, and repair of public roads, highways, streets, and bridges.

Revenues from this would be deposited in our street construction maintenance and repair fund, often referred to as the SCMR fund.

Based on our estimates, and based on the estimates from the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles data, over the past three years, there were approximately 220,000 total registered license plates in Toledo's taxing district.

So based on this information, we estimate this fee would bring in about 1.1 million dollars on an annual basis to that fund.

The amount of revenue that we would be generated generating from this fee equates to the city's patch and seal program.

The maintenance method used in our patent seal program helped prolong the life of our roads by about five to six years.

A good example of where we have used this maintenance method is Airport Highway, Grantley Avenue, and Eastbrook.

Um this program is operated out of our road and bridge maintenance division.

As you can see from this slide and the next, the current maximum permissive tax for registration in a single taxing district is $30 per registration.

Currently, the county is enacting all available county level levies, and the city is enacting one of the available levies.

It means the city or the municipality, Toledo, can um cannot enact three of the levies that are available to us.

This leaves Toledo as a municipal as the municipality with only one remaining levy that we can enact.

As you can see here, there are several municipalities within the state that have already enacted the fee and are in the process process of enacting the fee.

Um the majority of municipalities in Lucas County are enacting this.

You can see Springfield, Sylvania, Ottawa Hills, Maumee, and uh Waterville have all moved with this or in the process.

Additionally, Bowling Green and Wood County has also enacted this fee.

I will now turn it over to Director Campbell who will go through some more information on the SCMR fund for us.

Thank you, and good afternoon, Chairman Driscoll, members of the committee.

Um this next slide just provides an overview of the street construction maintenance and repair fund.

Um the additional uh five dollar uh fee would go into this fund as we've discussed.

Um what's reflected here though are the current revenues and expenditures.

Um this is based off our 2026 budget.

Um so there's 17.3 million in total revenues in SEM and R.

Uh 12.2 comes from gasoline taxes, and we've seen that revenue source over the past several years be pretty consistent around that 12 million dollar mark in collections.

Existing license taxes, licensed taxes are 4.6 million, and then there's about half a million in other revenues, a portion of which come from the overweight truck enforcement program.

On the expenditure side, um the total budget is about 19.2 million in SCMR.

Um 12.5 of that does go into the road and bridge maintenance budget, and that covers patch and seal, crack sealing, pothole programs, and there's 52 uh budgeted positions in the SCMR fund under road and bridge.

5.7 million is under traffic management for their programs, including sign and signal maintenance, pavement marking or any traffic calming measures, and 36 positions in traffic management are funded under SCMNR.

And then lastly, there's about a million dollars in other costs, including utilities and some debt service costs.

Overall, we do face a structural budget deficit in the SCMR fund of about 1.9 million dollars.

The next two pages uh reflect the SCM and R uh fiscal plan and projection.

You'll see 2025 unaudited revenues and expenditures, our current 2026 projected budget, and then two years of projected revenues and expenditures for 27 and 28.

What's reflected here is that you see in 2027, the revenues in the intergovernmental area, that's where this fee would go, go from 16.8 million to 17.9 million, reflecting that additional 1.1 million approximately, and additional taxes.

As you look at the expenditure, uh labor costs are projected to increase a little bit over the next couple years, service and supply costs are maintained as flat, and there is some existing debt service costs that come out in the operating transfer category.

Overall, you'll see that the change in fund balance would reflect that uh projected uh deficit between revenues and expenditures and a use of fund balance over the next several years.

However, the fund balance is maintained as a positive number with that additional revenue.

The next page is again the same SCMR plan and projection.

Um, the only change being the growth in revenue from 26 to 27, doesn't include the 1.1 million approximately in additional license taxes.

As you look through the report and at the change in fund balance, you'll see an accelerated use of the fund balance in 27 and 28 and a projected deficit at the end of 2028.