The levy that Riverside voters will be asked to consider on Nov. 3 is a 5-mill, 5-year levy.
The city proposed an 8-mill permanent levy in 2018 and 2019.
“The community didn’t want a continuous levy, they told us that,” Carpenter said. “We listened to the residents when they said they didn’t want a continuous levy and wanted less millage.”
According to the Montgomery County Auditor’s Office, if the levy were to pass, the owner of a house valued at $100,000 in Riverside would pay an additional $175 a year in property taxes for five years. That equates to an additional $14.50 a month for five years.
The owner of a $200,000 house in Riverside would pay an extra $350 a year.
The Auditor’s office estimates that the levy would generate about $1.2 million a year, or about $6 million over the five year life of the levy.
The levy would be used exclusively for streets in residential neighborhoods. In five years, Carpenter said the city could repair 158 streets.
Carpenter said the city also plans to borrow money for those repairs. The city plans to borrow about $5 million over the course of the five years. The city doesn’t yet know where they would borrow the funds from, he said.
The city hired a consulting group, Pavement Management Group, to evaluate the roads in Riverside in the spring of 2019. There are 307 residential streets in Riverside and, as of spring of last year, 174 of those streets have a pavement condition rating of 55 or below, meaning they need paved now, said Riverside Public Service Director Kathy Bartlett.
The city would plan to ask voters for a second 5-year levy in 2025. In the second five years, Bartlett said 92 streets could get paved.
“The roads are going to continue to deteriorate and we currently do not have enough revenue to pave the streets that need to be repaired,” Carpenter said.
In 2019, the city spent about $1 million on road construction and repair work. The projects included work on Airway Road, Spinning Road and Woodman Drive.
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