ALAMOSA — Alamosa voters will likely see a request for a half-cent sales tax for street work on the November ballot this year.

Voters will also receive a list of the streets that will be targeted by the new sales tax, which would end in 10 years, if approved.

A half-cent sales tax would generate about $1.3 million additional each year for street projects. If approved, the new tax would take effect January 1, 2020. It would increase Alamosa’s city tax from 3.2 percent to 3.7 percent and the combined local tax from 7.9 percent to 8.4 percent.

On a $10 purchase, the additional half-cent tax would add 5 cents.

During a city council work session Wednesday night, City Manager Heather Brooks said the half-cent sales tax would be dedicated to street projects through the Alamosa Streets Trust Fund.

Brooks proposed that the council appoint a citizen committee, comprised of residents from each of the city’s wards as well as at-large, that would develop a list of street projects to recommend to the council. The council would then review and amend or approve the list to go before voters this fall.

The city is taking applications for the citizen committee through February 22. (See city’s news release on page 3.)

Brooks pointed out that during the city’s recent comprehensive planning process 28 percent of the citizens who responded to the survey question rated Alamosa’s street maintenance as bad/very bad. Brooks added that citizens also rated “smoother roads” as one of their top priorities for city services.

“With all the citizen input, streets are a high priority,” Brooks said. “Yet we are not meeting expectations in providing that service.”

The city system includes 63 miles of road, with about 58 miles paved and about five miles unpaved.

A pavement management survey between 2010-2014 showed that of the paved roads in the city, about 23 miles of paved road are in very good condition, about 20 miles in good condition, about 8 miles in fair condition, 6 miles in poor condition and nearly three miles in a “failed” condition. Brooks said some roads might have shifted to a lower position since that survey was conducted.

The city prioritizes street projects using several criteria, with safety being one of the primary considerations in addition to traffic, drainage, connectivity, public concern and other considerations.

The city has set up a street capital improvement plan for the next five years that outlines which areas will receive attention in what years. Brooks said with the ongoing street budget, about all the city can afford to do each year is design the next year’s project and tackle one street project.

Brooks reminded the council of the levels of street funding, which have historically ranged from $500,000-700,000 each year. From 2017-2019 the city used some of its savings in the general fund for street work, bolstering the street budget to more than $1 million, but that will end after this year.

Brooks said it is critical to perform ongoing maintenance to extend a street’s life, because maintenance is much less costly than replacing or reconstructing a street. The average cost per block to build or rebuild a street is $225,000. An overlay costs about $38,400 per block, and slurry seal costs $15,600 per block. Overlays and slurry seal can also only be applied to streets in adequate condition.

“That’s why maintenance is so critical,” Brooks said.

The normal growth in sales tax revenues that the city has experienced in the past several years would not provide enough money to keep up with the streets that need work, Brooks said, even if all of that sales tax increase could be used for streets. For example, the 3 percent increase in sales tax in 2014 amounted to $167,439 more in revenues for the city — “that wouldn’t even pay for a block of a street project,” Brooks explained.

In addition, street construction inflation is about 5 percent every year, “so growth in sales tax wouldn’t even keep pace with that.”

Putting this issue before the voters gives voters the opportunity to tell the city if they want the city to continue performing street work at the level of about $500,000 a year, as the budget allows, or address more street projects with $1.8 million annually ($1.3 million from additional sales tax and $500,000 in the regular budget.)

The city would have a list of what the street work will be, so voters can know what exactly they are voting to improve. A citizens street committee would develop that list, Brooks said. Staff would provide the committee with information but not tell them what to do, she said. She suggested one volunteer from each ward, two at-large volunteers and two business owners or representatives of major employers or the chamber or Alamosa County Economic Development Corporation. City councilors said they would rather have two volunteers from each ward.

The citizen committee would make recommendations for the priority street projects to city council, which would then have final say on what street projects would go to the voters to be funded by the sales tax increase.

Mayor Ty Coleman said it was important to him that the council could change the committee’s list if it needed to be.

That committee would work on its list through May and bring the list to council, which would finalize the list in June, conduct public outreach through the summer and approve the ballot language on August 21, if the process moves forward, Brooks explained. Voters would then decide on November 5 whether or not to approve the half-cent sales tax.

Councilman Jan Vigil said Durango tried to pass a similar tax last November, and it failed, largely due to lack of education. “I think we have all the tools we need to educate our citizens,” he said. “I think if we really educate folks, we can get this done.”

Mayor Coleman wanted to make sure that some of the areas like Washington Addition that had been neglected for some time would receive attention with this new funding. Councilor Michael Carson voiced concern about that as well. He added that maybe the citizen committee should have some criteria in deciding what streets to recommend for the new funding, if approved.

“We’ve got to keep in mind this is our neck on the guillotine,” he said. “Ultimately that decision is up to us.”

Councilman Charles Griego, whose ward encompasses Washington Addition, said some of the streets in his area were not just deteriorating — they don’t even exist. He estimated that most of the unpaved streets in the city were in his ward. “The Stockton Addition right now is all dirt roads,” he said.

Councilor Liz Hensley said the positive part about the potential for more funding is that projects the city has not been able to afford in the past could now be addressed. She added that this process would be very transparent, because voters will know exactly what projects the new tax would fund.

Mayor Coleman said when the projects are identified the city council needs to have a united front in bringing this to the voters if the council wants this tax to pass.