Kingman Council weighs half‑cent sales tax to sustain street preservation

At a March 5 special work session, Kingman City public works and finance staff told the City Council that a multi‑year pavement preservation program funded from a $50 million council commitment has reversed long‑term road deterioration but will exhaust the reserve by 2030 unless the city secures a steady revenue source.

Jack Plante, Kingman's road specialist in the public works department, said the city maintains roughly 453 lane miles of roadway with a replacement value near $300 million and that the council's $50 million commitment has allowed crews to treat roughly 284 miles — about half the network — using a mix of treatments from crack sealing to cape seals and mill‑and‑fill. "Since 2022 we've treated over 50% of the residential roads," Plante said. He told the council the preservation work and new in‑house crew hires have reduced future reconstruction liability and produced about $3 million in savings versus projections.

Tina Molen, deputy city manager and finance director, put the program in budgetary context: Kingman receives highway user revenue funds (HERF) and about $1.4 million from a 1% restaurant/bar tax dedicated to pavement preservation, and the general fund has transferred an average of $6.5 million per year into streets through fiscal 2030. Molen said those reserve transfers were authorized when council set the $50 million aside and that, "when that operating reserve gets to a threshold that we can't drop below, then we're back to square one." She said a 0.5 percentage‑point increase in the city's TPT (the regular retail base) would generate about $6 million annually; alternate options — a 1% hotel/motel increase or an increase in the commercial leasing tax — would produce smaller sums.

Plante and Molen walked the council through modeled scenarios that show a steady additional investment (roughly $5–6 million per year devoted directly to asphalt work, on top of the bar/restaurant tax) can steadily improve the Pavement Condition Index (PCI) and reduce the share of roads in poor or very poor condition over the next decade. "This doesn't eliminate all the poor streets immediately," Plante said. "What it does is take an incremental improvement of our system year‑over‑year." Staff emphasized that that HERF is restricted to transportation purposes and that HERF allocations are set by state formulas based primarily on population.

Council members pressed staff on details. Plante said the last time a material residential program was undertaken was in 2017 (a limited set of 20–30 miles), and that the current multi‑cycle plan will complete the remainder of residential streets by spring 2027. He told council that mill‑and‑fill costs have risen substantially (historic pre‑2008 costs under about $10 per square yard versus roughly $25–$30 today) and that one‑time bond proceeds alone would not solve an ongoing maintenance shortfall because reconstructed pavement must then be sustained with recurring preventive spending.

Molen reviewed options in the model city tax code including a 'big‑ticket' tiered approach that reduces the burden on small purchases while applying an increment on single high‑value purchases (threshold examples shown at $10,000). She said staff estimates a uniform half‑percent increase across the regular TPT base would raise about $6 million; the big‑ticket variants produced modeled revenues roughly comparable (staff presented two variants at about $5.3M–$5.6M). She also noted that raising the hotel occupancy or restaurant/bar levies would generate more modest amounts.

Public safety and general fund constraints framed much of the finance discussion: Molen said the city's sales tax and related revenue portfolio totals about $33 million, with roughly $30 million going to the general fund and roughly $25 million of that covering police and fire operating costs. That fiscal reality, she said, limits what the general fund can continue to transfer to pavement preservation after the operating reserve is no longer available.

Staff recommended further public engagement and technical refinement. The council scheduled a town hall workshop (March 27) to collect more community input; no formal rate change or ordinance was adopted at the March 5 meeting. The next steps are additional public outreach and staff refinement of allocation scenarios and draft ordinance language for council consideration.