Marshall County citizens are invited to attend a special joint meeting of the Marshall County Commissioners and County Council on Wednesday, April 22nd. The special joint meeting is being held for the purpose of a Road Funding presentation by Pat Connor from the Local Technical Assistance Program (L-TAP).
The County Commissioners are very concerned with the conditions of the roadways after the two extreme winter seasons we have had. The county has experienced an extreme number of “blow outs” this year on roadways around the entire county and current funding isn’t enough to take care of all the issues.
Commissioner President, Kevin Overmyer learned that no new money will be coming with the proposed state budget even though there were several asks from counties and cities around the state. His believe is that legislators won’t send any money to the counties until they use the tools they have, the implementation of new taxes to raise new local money for roads.
The county will learn about LOHUT, Local Option Highway User Tax. LOHUT is comprised of two separate taxes known as the “wheel tax” and the “motor vehicle excise surtax.”
Established by the Indiana General Assembly in 1980, LOHUT is the only optional tax specifically for road funding. It is comprised of two taxes, the wheel tax and the motor vehicle excise surtax. Both taxes must be levied together and apply to different types of vehicles so no person would ever pay both taxes on the same vehicle.
The BMV collects the applicable tax for the vehicle being registered. The collected tax is remitted to the County Auditor and County Treasurer who allocate and distribute the funds. The BMV charges a fee of $0.15/vehicle to collect the tax.
LOHUT funds can only be used “to construct, reconstruct, repair, or maintain streets and roads under its jurisdiction.”
The special joint County Commissioners and County Council meeting will be held in the second floor meeting room of the County Building beginning at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, April 22nd.
