Right-Of-Way Fee Will Burden Low-Income Residents

ANALYSIS AND COMMENTARY

An extra $15 dollars per month, or $180 per year, is the fee that is likely to be imposed on citizens in San Angelo following an estimated $4.4 million dollar budget shortfall for FY 2027-2028, according to a town hall meeting at Immanuel Baptist on Monday evening.

“It’s a fee, not a tax” said new city manager Phil Urrutia when asked about the “right-of-way” fee.

The Concho Observer asked if there would be any exemptions for the city’s poorest residents — those likely to have less than $50 in their bank account at the end of the month, for instance.

Urrutia said programs to assist taxpayers who can’t afford the fees will be expanded as the fund used for assistance will be doubled in the coming year thanks to non-city funded programs, and that fund will total around $200,000 but residents will have to go through a means-testing process.

A quick back-of-the-envelope calculation ($200,000/15/12) shows that $200,000 is enough to cover ROW fee around/about 1,100 residents per year. From a pool of money that it seems is already being used for other taxes.

In a region where the United Way says more that 40 percent of the population qualifies as “Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed” (or, ALICE), that $15 monthly fee will burden a lot more than 1,100 people.

The fee, it seems, will be applied to every household, bringing renters into the fold of being assessed for street repairs; a responsibility heretofore borne by the property owners through their taxes.

This means that the fee will also apply to people who walk to work each day, so long as they maintain a residence in San Angelo.

Walking in the blazing heat, freezing cold or maybe a dust storm on their way to work, they sure use the roads, but they’re not wearing them out even a little bit.

Taxes = Bad 🙁

Our problem with the fee is not so much the inevitable “all taxes are bad” argument — that most juvenile summation of civic responsibility.

I am more than happy to pay my $15 per month to keep the roads maintained. Our problem with the fee arrived when we learned that real money-makers like HEB — one of, if not “the” busiest spots in town, will be assessed a mere $350 dollars per month, and all roads in this town lead to HEB.

Comparatively low-traffic businesses, like a downtown bank for instance, will be charged $25 dollars per month under the plan.

That means that a bank (y’know the place where they keep all the money) will only be charged $10 dollars more per month than the average citizen.

According to information from the city, the way the ROW fee is assessed for businesses has to with its assigned code, which represents the number of trips for a population of 100,000 your business generates.

A tattoo parlor, not exactly a high-volume enterprise, would be charged significantly less than a grocery store, which — outside of work and school — represents one of the main reasons folks are on the roads in the first place.

But as the new city manager said, the fee will be charged to everybody in the city: homes, apartments, and even city-owned locations will be assessed.

The View from 20,000 Feet

It’s 15 dollars per month? what’s the big deal?

$15 dollars is cheaper than most popular streaming platforms charge for their premium ad-free subscriptions.

I feel like we’re dancing around a rather large problems here in San Angelo: the first has to do with the increasingly failing property-tax system that leaves Texas cities and Texas schools in the lurch financially more and more every year.

The second has to do with the fact that a lot more people are struggling right now than we wish to perceive.

But curing street-repair shortfalls by taxing work-a-day folks seems like a particularly careless solution to the problem, especially considering how high rents in this town are running.

The Problem We Cant Quite Look In The Eye

I can already hear the arguments now.

“‘Those people’ will just use that money for cigarettes or beer…or worse…”

Well, sure they can. This is America and it’s their money, so they can spend their last $15 in a month on beer and smokes if they want to.

But let’s be honest, we can’t chalk up all poverty to bad decision making by people.

The city manager illustrated the point very well, talking about the enormous amount of inflation the average American has been burdened with in the last six years.

Since 2020, the price of chlorine (the main component the city uses to purify our water) has increased 30 percent.

Since 2020, the price of asphalt has gone up over 20 percent.

The price of a fire engine has doubled.

It isn’t just the city that needs more money just to maintain the status quo, it’s costing everyone a lot more money to live.

Inflation and cost of living have increased at rates far beyond any pay raise the average citizen around here has been getting, and likely will continue to do so.

A little more than a year ago now, I was offered a job that I actually wanted quite a bit. I had to turn it down because the starting pay was only $13 per hour, with no forecast on when I could expect an increase.

You can barely live on $13 an hour, but these are the only jobs some people are being offered these days — jobs that pay some fraction of what is needed to support their household.

San Angelo is — and frankly always has been — a place where a lot of folks are overworked, underpaid and under loved.

Fifteen Dollars Will Buy…

• A gallon of milk, some bread, some cheese and meat. Enough to make sandwiches to send your kids to school with.
• A little under five gallons of gas, on a good day, and less than three of diesel.
• A couple quarts of oil when your car is running low.
• If you have good enough insurance, $15 might cover the cost of a life-preserving medicine. Again, if you’re lucky.

It’s an amount that might stretch my budget a little, but then again I drive on these roads every day, roaming over 1,200 miles of paved lanes the city must maintain.

Where’s The Beef?

The fact of the matter is that state officials and the legislature have put our cities in a terribly tricky position.

By locking in tax rates, they are forcing the dirty work of raising money to pay for services onto our local officials, who ultimately have little control over the matter, as they are statutorily obligated to pay for them. All so that representatives in Austin have something they can campaign on.

I know streets require upkeep, but creating a flat tax that applies to everyone, even the poorest in this town, is tone deaf.

And let me be abundantly clear, I understand the city’s difficult position. I know it’s not their fault.

It’s just bad optics.

I hope the city, in the future, will consider minor adjustments to place more of the burden on the people counting the raked-in cash, and less on the people who are paid to work the rake.

And also, let’s call it what it is. It’s a tax.

Saying the word “tax” doesn’t scare me. I know it might scare others but, I’d like to think I’m a big boy now, I’ve even got the pants size to prove it. I can handle a tax.

I personally am more than happy to pay the fee.

It doesn’t seem like a bad idea in principle, but I fear in practice we might see this very marginal fee effect the residents who have hardly any spare change at the end of the month.

And I’m not trying to pick on HEB.

HEB has their own costs to deal with too.

They most likely employ more people under the age of 21 than any other business in the city, have massive overhead costs, and like all grocers, operates on notoriously thin profit margins.

But their rate could just as easily be $1,000 per month.

Many renters really don’t earn enough to be assessed for streets, and this seems like one more way for San Angelo to be one of the most business-friendly towns in Texas, while being the least worker friendly.

At the end of the day, when you’re down to your last dollar, even a $15 dollar monthly fee can mean the difference between losing your job and putting some gas in your car to get to work.

Ultimately, I hope that the city considers the most impoverished citizen in their budget deliberations.