Finance committee approves $68,404 transfer of rideshare assessment funds to capital road projects

The Committee on Finance and Salaries voted to approve two transfers requested by the Department of Public Works that will move accumulated rideshare-assessment receipts into the city’s capital-improvement program to support road reconstruction.

DPW staff explained that the state requires rideshare companies to remit a 20-cent assessment per ride and that half of the assessment is distributed to municipalities where trips began. In Taunton the RIDE/LYFT assessment account had accumulated funds that must be appropriated by the council before they can be spent. The DPW requested $56,844.10 from the Uber/Lyft RISE assessment fund balance be transferred to the city CIP and $11,559.92 be transferred from undesignated fund balance to the same CIP account.

According to the DPW letter read into the record by the department, the money “must be used to address the impact of transportation network services on municipal roads, bridges and other transportation infrastructure” and may fund complete-streets programs, resurfacing, sidewalk reconstruction, roadway painting and markings. DPW representatives said the funds will help subsidize capital road projects such as Chapter 90 work.

Councilors asked whether the amount represented a single year of receipts; staff said it was a multi-year accumulation that had been partially appropriated previously in 2020 and that the current request shifts the balance into the road CIP. After a short discussion the committee voted to approve the transfers. The motion passed on a voice vote: “All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? So voted.”