The proposal, scheduled to be heard at Wednesday’s city commission meeting, would assess all residential, commercial and city property — except tax-exempt properties — based on assessed valuation.
For example, the owner of a home assessed at $60,000 would pay an estimated $26.11 a year on their property taxes for street lights. A commercial property assessed at $250,000 would pay an estimated $108.80 annually for street lights.
“We need to do this, not only to pay for the street lights, but also to standardize the lighting throughout the city and convert ... lighting to LED, cutting energy costs by half,” said Stan Earley, deputy city manager.
Earley said those few sections of the city that have no street lights would not be part of the assessment. The Oregon Historic District also would be excluded from this plan because property owners there already pay an assessment for street lights, Earley said.
If the proposal is approved, it would go into effect on Jan. 1 and Dayton would join several other localities that assess property owners for street lights.
“As cities struggle with state funding cuts, such assessments becomes an option,” said John Weithoffer, director of the Miami Valley Communications Council, which negotiated a street light contract for 17 localities. “The downturn in income tax, property tax and pending end of the estate tax, you stack all those up, and cities do not have the resources they had in the past.”
The details
The city pays Miami Valley Lighting, a branch of DP&L, $2.2 million annually under its contract. Earley said the city is in the midst of negotiating a new agreement. Part of that negotiation is prodding Miami Valley to convert its lights to LED. Miami Valley owns 14,600 of the 19,600 street lights and poles in the city. The remaining 5,000 are owned by the city.
The assessment is expected to raise $3 million annually to cover the cost of street lights, pay administrative costs and fund the installation of an additional 250 street lights, according to Earley.
“We should be finished with the conversion to LED and have it paid off in six years,” Earley said. “The plan is for the assessment to be ‘sunseted’ after six years ... but I cannot make promises for future commissions.”
Property owners would be billed on their water bill. Failure to pay would trigger a tax lien.
More paying for lights
Weithoffer said nine of the 17 communities in the last street light contract have residents paying for street lights. “The level is higher among townships. It’s nearly 100 percent,” Weithoffer said.
Kettering, which was once Van Buren Twp., has been assessing for street lights for at least 50 years, said Al Fullenkamp, assistant city manager. As homes were built the city charged a 10-year assessment for installation of street lights. When that is paid off, a second, continuing assessment is charged to cover energy and maintenance cost.
The city developed a complex matrix for each property involving street frontage, parcel type — commercial, industrial or residential — and type of street, be it a thoroughfare or residential. From that comes the energy/maintenance assessment amount. Fullenkamp said the city pays a portion of the assessment depending on numerous factors. “It’s all in an effort to make it fair to everyone.”
Kettering pays around $500,000 annually to Miami Valley Lighting. Of that, the assessments cover 70 percent to 80 percent, Fullenkamp said. The city has been looking at LED lights but has held off because of costs.
Assessments nixed
In Troy, the City Council was scheduled to vote Monday on a proposed street light assessment but agreed to delay a vote until a Tuesday work session on finances. At the work session reviewing various options to add to revenues, council members indicated there were not enough votes to support the assessment.
Patrick Titterington, city service and safety director, said following Tuesday’s meeting that the message administrators received was that council was interested in pursuing other options.
Englewood stopped street light assessments more than 15 years ago and has no plans to bring them back, according to City Manager Eric Smith.
“It was a tremendous hassle,” Smith said. “People kept complaining that because the street light wasn’t in front of their house they saw no reason to pay the assessment.”
Nancy Bowman contributed to this report.
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