By Greg Staskiewicz, Reporter
The transportation bond issue approved by Omaha voters in 2020 is making significant improvements to local roads.
Voters approved the $200 million plan to sell bonds, which have begun to raise money for mass road repairs in Omaha. In order to pay off the bonds, the plan includes a new property tax levy projected to raise $0.26 to $0.35 per $100,000 of property value. According to the City of Omaha website, the tax increases are unlikely to be implemented until 2022, when the first debt service payment will come due.
More than half of the 59 planned pavement maintenance projects have already been completed, with some currently ongoing or scheduled for completion in 2022 or 2023, according to data from Keep Omaha Moving, Omaha Public Works’ project site. Many of the slated jobs include resurfacing and repair of concrete road panels and old brick streets found in older parts of Omaha.
Todd Pfitzer, city engineer at Omaha Public Works, said that before the bond issue was passed, his department was not getting nearly enough tax funds to properly maintain Omaha’s large geographic area relative to its tax base. The gas tax, which has historically funded roads, now pays less into road funds because many vehicles have become more fuel-efficient, he said.
“This was a huge shot in the arm, so let me start by saying that,” Pfitzer said. “It was much needed, and immediately put to good use. And the number that we got, the 200 million dollars effectively enabled us to double our maintenance”
Despite dramatic inflation of construction costs and labor shortages, Pfitzer said that the city was able to solicit competitive bids on the many road projects to get a good value for taxpayers. Additionally, the push to quickly begin and complete the projects removes the fear that rapidly increasing inflation of material cost, as projects will not stretch on for many years.
Pfitzer said that the burden of funding infrastructure projects is increasingly falling on local governments, who do their best to sell the projects to voters, and that Americans are “voting with their pocketbooks” to have new and improved infrastructure.
“That’s one of the great things about this country,” Pfitzer said. “The citizens get to make the decisions. We can point out the needs, but if the citizens all look at it and say, “No, I’d rather keep my taxes low than have that nice stuff.” Hey, we live in a democracy. That’s the way it goes.”
The transportation bond issue was approved for five years, and will reappear on the ballot when it is close to expiring.
