WENATCHEE, Wash. — City of Wenatchee staff on Tuesday recommended asking voters to approve a 0.2 percentage-point sales tax increase in August to close an estimated $2 million annual gap in funding for the citywide pavement preservation program.

Charlotte Mitchell, senior project engineer, told the council the ballot measure would be effective for about 10 years if approved and is intended to "fully fund the city's pavement preservation program." She said the city currently budgets about $2.2 million a year for preservation but needs roughly $4.2 million annually to stabilize and then recover the city's pavement condition index (PCI) toward a 70 average.

The presentation laid out how pavement condition is scored and why earlier interventions cost far less than full reconstruction. Mitchell said the city maintains 244 lane miles and uses PCI surveys to schedule treatments ranging from crack sealing and chip seals on high-scoring streets to overlays or full reconstruction for roads scoring in the 20s.

Brad Posenjack, the city's finance director, framed the tax choices the council considered: vehicle license fees, property tax increases, or a sales tax. He said a vehicle-fee approach would require about $60 per vehicle to raise the needed revenue, and an equivalent property tax increase would be about $0.36 per $1,000 of assessed value. Posenjack said the sales-tax option spreads the burden to anyone who buys taxable goods in Wenatchee and estimated that a 0.2% sales-tax increase would cost a household an estimated $30 to $40 a year on taxable purchases. "If the voters do approve that 2 tenths of a percent, then you should expect to see that budgeted 1.6 number actually be 4,500,000.0 in our 2026 budget," he said.

Council members asked about timing and visibility. Staff said, if approved by voters in August, the tax would take effect Jan. 1, 2026, giving crews time to include additional projects in the 2026 pavement program. Mitchell and Posenjack emphasized that maintaining higher PCI scores saves money long-term because low-cost preventive treatments become ineffective once a street deteriorates past certain thresholds.

The presentation included examples of streets at different PCI bands, the likely treatments and costs per square yard, and a long-term model showing deferred maintenance growing to roughly $64.9 million by 2035 if the city keeps current funding levels.

No vote was taken on the council floor; staff said they will continue outreach and return with formal ballot language and related budget projections.