Centre County Government’s Willowbank Building in Bellefonte. Photo by Geoff Rushton | StateCollege.com

The additional annual $5 fee for non-exempt vehicles registered in Centre County appears likely to remain in place for another five years.

Centre County’s Board of Commissioners voted on Tuesday to move a resolution extending the fee for local use through 2027 to the Feb. 8 meeting agenda for final consideration.

Enacted in 2017, the fees are collected as part of the state vehicle registration process and paid back to the county in June and December of each year to be used for road and bridge projects. Act 89 of 2013 allows counties to impose the fee and all of the money returned to the county is to be allocated to municipalities.

Centre County collected about $600,000 from the fee last year.

The ordinance establishing the fee had a sunset clause after five years, and senior transportation planner Anne Messner said the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation requires 90 days notice if the fee collection will continue.

Some 6,000 vehicles in Centre County were exempt from registration and the additional fee when the original ordinance was enacted, and retirees who are eligible for the flat $10 state registration fee also do not have to pay the additional $5.

“This was something that five years ago we spent a great deal of time on, heard from a lot of municipalities,” Board of Commissioner Chair Michael Pipe said. “We wanted to make sure we were using these funds in a productive way and I think that we have. In a number of different ways, it’s been a success.”

Since 2017, the fee has allocated more than $2 million to help fund 16 bridge and road projects in 15 municipalities, Messner said during a December board meeting.

Because state and federal road and bridge funds require a local contribution, the fee for local use allocations have been able to leverage more than $8 million in funds.

The fee for local use is part of the county’s Local Transportation Funding Program, also established in 2017, to provide flexibility among a variety of funds for transportation projects. It also includes the Liquid Fuels Fund, allocated by PennDOT from state fuel taxes, and Act 13 allocations from PennDOT for at-risk bridges.

Commissioner Mark Higgins said the fee for local use has been important to fill in funding gaps, noting that the county gets about $1 million in requests for liquid fuel funds annually, but last year only received only $164,000 from PennDOT.

“You can’t pull down state or federal money unless you have local money,” Higgins said. “As you can see here a lot of our townships and boroughs are already having to come up with tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of dollars annually just to try to maintain what they have.”

He added that when he first took office in 2016 the county had 15 locally owned bridges determined to be structurally deficient. Ten of those have since begun or completed rehabilitation, he said.

The recent bridge collapse in Pittsburgh underscored the need to maintain infrastructure before significant issues occur, Pipe said.

“That was a pretty striking reminder that our infrastructure is, unfortunately, in many cases deteriorating and any improvements we can do saves us money in the long run from potential total reconstructions that may be needed in the future,” he said. “If we can rehabilitate it beforehand we’ll be saving some money.”

He also noted that the federal Bipartisan Infrastructure Law passed in November is expected to provide “many many opportunities for additional road projects,” that may need local matching money.

Commissioner Steve Dershem voted against the fee in 2017, citing the burden of additional costs on residents and that the county itself doesn’t own any roads or bridges. On Tuesday, he said he still has reservations.

“I continue to struggle with this program,” Dershem said. “I’m not saying that I don’t support, obviously, the expansion of opportunities to improve our road system… I don’t know where I’m going to land on this next week.”

Though uncertain whether he could support it this time around, Dershem voted to move the resolution to next week’s agenda for final consideration. Passage requires a simple majority of the three-member board.

“One of my major concerns, Michael touched on it, I’d like to see how this money can be leveraged against the infrastructure money that will be coming in from the state and federal government,” he said. “It’s not that I don’t appreciate that municipalities need to do this but Centre County doesn’t own any roads … There’s just a number of things philosophically I continue to struggle with over the course of time.”

Commissioners also voted to move to next week’s agenda the allocation of $266,905 in fee for local use funding to six projects. The county expects to receive those funds in its June payment from PennDOT, Messner said.

They include

Bellefonte Borough

Project: Streetscape safety improvements on South Spring and West Bishop streets

Recommended allocation: $25,000.00

Municipal or other contribution $256,593.00

Project total: $281,593.00

Curtin Township

Project: Fix deterioration of Blue Row (T486) and Middletown Road (T504)

Recommended allocation: $57,150.00

Municipal or other contribution: $57,150.00

Project total: $114,300.00

Gregg Township

Project: Signs for Bitner Hollow (T453), Grenoble (T459,) and Bluebell (T470) roads

Recommended allocation: $3,066.37

Municipal or other contribution: $1,372.80

Project total: $4,439.17

Millheim Borough

Project: Signs (83) and equipment (MX6000HSTC Kubota with boom mower and front-end loader).

Recommended allocation: $13,788.99

Municipal or other contribution: $49,105.00

Project total: $62,883.99

Rush Township

Project: Improve McCord Road (T626) so opposing traffic can pass.

Recommended allocation: $83,816.25

Municipal or other contribution: $83,816.25

Project total: $167,632.50

Snow Shoe Borough

Project: Improve deteriorating roadway on West Sunset Avenue

Recommended allocation: $84,094.00

Municipal or other contribution: $25,000.00

Project total: $109,094.00

Mid- and end-of-year reports for the fee for local use are available at centrecountypa.gov/946/Vehicle-Fee-For-Local-Use-Reports.

The Board of Commissioners will meet at 10 a.m. on Feb. 8 in the Willowbank Building

Source: https://www.statecollege.com/centre-county-poised-to-renew-5-vehicle-registration-fee/