GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – With road construction season wrapping up, the city of Green Bay says it was able to do 40% more work this year compared to the average year over the past decade.
“I think it’s good that the public knows there has been a huge increase,” said Steve Grenier, Green Bay’s Public Works Director. “Even if we look at 2019, we’re about a 20% larger program than we were in 2019.”
In 2019, the city resurfaced or reconstructed just over 5 miles of road. This year, it did about one mile more. The reason why is the decision two years ago to replace special road assessments for property owners with a $20 annual wheel tax.
“There is more coming in than what the assessments paid for so that money above and beyond the assessments has been used to fund more road projects,” said Grenier.
If the city wants to continue to expand the amount of road work it does each year, it obviously needs more money. With city funding sources already tight, Mayor Eric Genrich tells FOX 11 additional contribution from the state or federal level is likely needed.
He says another option is a city sales tax, which state law currently prevents.
“The county is able to levy a local sales tax. That is not something that is available to municipalities in the state of Wisconsin. So, I’ve had that conversation with legislators in the past.”
Alderperson Brian Johnson tells FOX 11 having more options is something he’d like to see.
“If the sales tax is something that the taxpayers want to see, we can take that to referendum, but they certainly need to be the ones to tell us if roads are an important enough priority where they would like to see that happen.”
Unless additional money comes along, the city plans to maintain the level of road work it increased to this year.
Conversations are likely to begin within the next month about what streets will be part of the city’s reconstruction and resurfacing programs next year.
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