Fairfield likely to raise vehicle-registration fee

LANCASTER — Fairfield County is expected to become the latest Ohio county to add $5 to the fee that residents pay to register motor vehicles.

The county commissioners plan to vote Tuesday to approve the increase, which would take effect in January. The increase means that the $ 54.50 that residents in Pickerington and Lancaster now pay for a vehicle registration would be $ 59.50 next year.

Columbus residents will pay $ 59.50 next year because of Franklin County’s adoption of the $ 5 increase. Ross and Madison counties also have approved one, and Knox and Pickaway counties have scheduled public hearings to consider it. Delaware County also is taking a look at it.

The state authorized counties to impose the additional $ 5 fee in the most- recent transportation budget, with the goal of increasing money for counties to repair roads and replace bridges. Counties are required to hold at least two public hearings before voting on the fee hike.

Dean Ringle, executive director of the County Engineers Association of Ohio, said there has been hardly any opposition to the fee increase, whose revenue must be spent exclusively on roads and bridges.

“Most people feel that $ 5 is worth it,” he said. “In the hearings, we’ve had more people supportive than non- supportive.”

The increase is needed because revenue from the state gasoline tax and vehicle- license fees has been flat, while the cost of materials such as asphalt, concrete and steel has been increasing, Ringle said.

The cost to register a vehicle depends on where the owner lives. In Columbus, Pickerington and Lancaster, for example, it costs $34.50 to renew a car registration for one year with the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles if the owner visits a deputy registrar’s office, plus $ 20 for the city’s permissive tax. Many municipalities in Franklin and Fairfield counties charge $ 20; some charge $15. Additional fees apply for processing online and other factors.

In Franklin County, the extra money is expected to add $ 5.6 million annually to the county engineer’s approximately $42 million budget to fill potholes and maintain roads, bridges and other infrastructure.

Fairfield County expects to add $800,000 from the fee increase to the county engineer’s approximately $ 8.2 million budget. The extra money will be a big help to tackle the repaving of roads that are increasingly stressed by rapid growth in the county of nearly 155,000 residents, county Engineer Jeremiah Upp said.

The additional money would provide townships with $260,000 annually from the county engineer’s budget for roads — double what they get now.

And the county’s transportation improvement district, which coordinates road projects tied to economic development, would receive $ 150,000 annually, Upp said.

Violet Township Trustee Terry Dunlap said the $ 5 increase is fair. “The fee is not that much, and it goes on everybody who uses the roads,” he said.

But Hocking Township Trustee Gail Ellinger called the fee “an unfunded mandate for the people of Fairfield County. The residents should have a say and be able to vote on it.”

State law provides a 30-day window to allow for filing a referendum to repeal a fee increase. County commissioners don’t expect anyone to circulate a petition to place the fee increase before voters, however.