Xenia road levy on the May ballot: What to know

The measure is expected to generate $2 million annually, and the ballot measure will not affect the city’s current credit towards tax paid to other cities.

The condition of streets has long been a point of consternation in the city of Xenia. Voters rejected a very similar income tax measure last November.

After voters turned it down, city council made a series of budget cuts around December, including $40,000 for the city’s annual events, $380,000 for capital projects related to the Hub District revitalization, $340,000 in park improvements and $10,000 in overhead costs.

At the time, council had drafted plans to implement “limited” street assessments that would be capped at $15 per month per property, and - in a split vote - to draft legislation reducing the income tax credit paid to other cities from 1.5% to 1.25%. However, both of these were scrapped after public backlash, said Xenia Mayor Ethan Reynolds.

“That was kind of dead on arrival,” he said. “No one wanted to touch it with a 10 foot pole.”

Why put the levy on a second time? Reynolds said it is to give residents the choice to pay for the roads or not, a choice that a reduction in tax credit paid to other cities would not have enabled.

“Voters are going to...have to say if they want us to continue to invest more or less in roads,” he said. “I’ve committed, regardless of what happens (with the levy) to submitting as much money for roads as humanly possible.”

The city has spent an average of $1.3 million annually on street rehabilitation in the last 10 years. This year’s street rehabilitation budget sits around $1.6 million, according to the city’s website.

“Over the last three years we’ve made a clear commitment that we’re investing in our infrastructure, and I sincerely appreciate the community’s patience while we’re trying to work through the backlog, but it’s going to take time. This is a 40-years-in-the-making problem.”

The city does have an existing plan to fix several roads this year, including Highlander Drive in the northeast part of the city, and several residential roads to the southwest, including Shannon Lane and Dundee Drive.

King Street, which is notoriously run down, will be getting its underground utilities redone this year, and will be fully repaved in 2027.