VEHICLE REGISTRATION PERMISSIVE TAX

​On Tuesday, July 9, 2019, Urbana City Council approved a new $5.00 vehicle registration permissive tax that will be effective on January 1, 2020 for all vehicles registered with the Ohio Bureau of Vehicles within the corporation limits of the City of Urbana.  The vehicle registration permissive tax is an optional tax that can be levied by counties, municipalities, and/or townships on vehicle registrations.  There are eleven $5.00 levies that are available to be enacted, but only six can be in effect at any one time in any single taxing district.  The current maximum permissive tax for registration in any single taxing district is $30.00 per registration year. 
 
Currently, for vehicles registered with the Ohio BMV within the City of Urbana corporation limits, $20.00 is paid as part of the vehicle registration fees as a permissive tax.  With the additional $5.00 being added, a total of $25.00 in permissive tax will be paid as part of the vehicle registration fee when a vehicle is registered with the Ohio BMV.  Of the $25.00 collected, $17.50 of this fee will be used for maintenance, repair, and improvement of public roads within the city.  This new, city specific $5.00 permissive tax fee will generate approximately $57,195.00 per year for road maintenance and improvement citywide.  The other $7.50 will continue to be used by the county to maintain, repair, and improve county owned  roads. 
 
According to the Ohio Department of Transportation, when adjusted for inflation, $100.00 invested in road construction in July 2005 now costs $152.00 as of June 2018.  According to the 2017 Pavement Condition Rating of all 62.6 miles of public streets within the City of Urbana, $6,016,075.95 in maintenance and resurfacing work is required.  Based on historically available funding, it would take the city over 24 years to complete street work on every city street if the pavement conditions did not worsen over that 24-year period.  Coupled with the recent gas tax increase that was put into effect by the State of Ohio on July 1, 2019, the new $5.00 permissive tax will allow the city to begin to further address its backlog of roadway maintenance and improvement projects.