County engineers ask commissioners to consider $5 permissive license-plate fee to bolster road budget

John Larson, the county engineer, and his assistant Todd Roth urged the Wayne County Commissioners on March 6 to consider enacting a $5 permissive license-plate fee to shore up thin road-repair budgets.

Larson told commissioners the county must maintain 396 miles of roadway and that material and equipment costs have risen sharply; he estimated a $5 fee could generate roughly $180,000 a year for the county but cautioned the total depends on how the fee is shared with townships and municipalities and on multi-year vehicle registrations.

The presentation explained why current revenue is insufficient and outlined repair costs and options. Larson said a simple 1.5-inch asphalt overlay can cost about $85,800 per mile, chip-seal about $15,000 per mile, and full mill-and-fill or major reconstruction can reach roughly $300,000 per mile. He described intermediate treatments ("wedging" at about $37,000 per mile, spot paving at roughly $58,100 per mile) and said those approaches have been used to extend pavement life at lower cost.

Larson and Roth also reviewed funding programs that could reduce local costs: the Local Public Agency (LPA) program (which the presentation said can fund about 80 percent of certain major-collector projects but operates on a multi-year schedule and covers a limited set of roads) and the Ohio Public Works Commission (OPWC), which the presentation said typically funds 40–49 percent and is competitive; he said only about 18 segments of the county's 396 miles qualify for OPWC scoring.

Larson pointed to several supply- and price-pressure examples: limestone for chip seal rose from about $11.50 to $17.75 per ton since 2019 (a roughly 30 percent increase in the figure shown), emulsion costs have risen, and equipment prices have climbed (a tandem dump truck shown in the presentation rose from about $167,000 in 2019 to about $255,000 in a 2026 quote). He said these changes increase the gap between available gas-tax revenue and the amount needed to maintain the county road network.

The presentation also addressed longer-term revenue pressure from electric vehicles. Larson noted Ohio charges a registration fee for pure electric vehicles (the presentation listed $200) but said that level is unlikely to fully offset lost gas-tax receipts as EV adoption grows.

On the permissive fee itself, Larson said state law (ORC permissive-fee provisions described in the briefing materials) allows counties to adopt additional license-plate fees but that municipalities and townships have their own caps and shares. He said the county previously acted on two of the available permissive fees and that legislation passed in February 2018 permitted an additional fee the county has not yet adopted. He told the commissioners a resolution would be required and that public hearings and coordination with the auditor and local jurisdictions would be necessary before implementation; he recommended a work session to review details and said acting before July 1 would allow the county to begin collecting on new registrations sooner.

Commissioners asked procedural questions and expressed interest in a follow-up work session; Larson agreed to provide more detailed revenue estimates after coordinating with the auditor and municipal and township clerks.

The engineers left the meeting materials with the commissioners and agreed to return for a work session to detail revenue modeling and the public-hearing schedule.