As the City of Centralia’s Transportation Benefit District (TBD) fund approaches the end of its 10-year cycle, the city public works department presented a list of the sales tax’s accomplishments in operations, maintenance and matching grant funds to the council on Tuesday.
The TBD fund began in 2014 when the Centralia City Council passed it in October before it was approved by voters in November 2015. The city started collecting the funds in April 2016.
Centralia’s TBD addresses local transportation needs that are not funded by other existing sources, but it is limited to critical repairs and not necessarily making streets “like new.”
If the council votes in May to approve the renewal of the sales tax, which is not a new tax and would not raise taxes, the measure would be placed on the ballot for voters in November. The TBD is funded from .02% local sales tax. Centralia’s current tax rate is 8.2%, but it will increase to 8.4% on April 1 because of Lewis County’s 911 tax, which was approved by voters last year.
Nearly $8 million has been collected since the city began collecting TBD funds in 2016, with 60% going toward operations and maintenance costs and the remaining 40% supporting transportation project matching funds.
Centralia Public Works Director Kim Ashmore said the 60% has funded projects such as chip seals, crack seals, asphalt, sidewalks and Americans with Disabilities Act-approved ramps. His team has completed 14 lane miles of blade patching, 36 lane miles of chip sealing, 11 lane miles of crack sealing, and 1,693 lineal feet of sidewalk replacements. But the biggest eyeopener for Ashmore was how the TBD fund helped Centralia’s pothole problems.
“Between 2016 and 2019, we were averaging 6,300 filled potholes per year. That’s customer requests, city employees driving around hitting the potholes, and claims for damages,” he said. “Between 2020 and 2024, it’s an average of 3,100. What the picture is telling me is that we’re improving. As we’re starting to create and fund some of these projects, the number of potholes that we’re responding to is getting (lower).”
TBD money is used to leverage funds into Centralia by providing matching funds for grants. Centralia has acquired a number of different types of grant funding over the last nine years, including grants from the American Rescue Plan Act, Federal Highway Administration Local Road Safety, Federal Highway Administration Planning and Construction, Lewis County Economic Alliance and Washington Cities Insurance Authority Sidewalk Safety.
These funds have also helped the city receive funding from the Washington state Department of Transportation, including for bicycle and pedestrian safety, safe routes to schools, traffic safety and the Transportation Improvement Board.
City Engineer Patty Page highlighted four examples of matching funds, such as the reconstruction of South Gold Street, Harrison Avenue from High Street to Main Street, Harrison Avenue from Johnson Road to Galvin Road, and asphalt paving of Galvin Road. The four projects cost a total of $5.47 million, but the city only had to pay a total of $866,744 because of the TBD matching grant funding.
“Before 2016, we had a federal or state grant about once every five years because we didn’t have any matching funds,” Page said. “So not only were our residential roads, which is where we do most of the chip sealing, falling apart, but so were our arterials. That’s what we’ve been trying to do with the matching funds over the last nine years is to hit those arterials that have really needed it. We’re not done.”
Page said the TBD funds will support a couple of projects in 2025, including stage one of the Westside Connector project to widen North Scheuber Road between Galvin and Mt. Vista roads, student safety enhancements for Washington and Oakview elementaries, and asphalt paving on First Street between Harrison Avenue and North Pearl Street.
If the TBD measure is approved, the public works department has several projects planned. Page expressed the need for the council’s support to continue the work that can only be funded through TBD funds.
“We need everyone’s help to realize what a benefit this has been to the citizens of Centralia and how much more we still need to get done,” she said.
City Finance Director Bret Brodersen said without the renewal of the TBD, all planned transportation projects would be halted.
“In order to continue the momentum that we have already started and to continue the projects that we have planned, the TBD needs to be renewed because without that, we don’t have funds in our normal street fund to actually cover any of these expenses,” he said. “We wouldn’t even have enough to really cover the ongoing expenses that we currently have to do that.”
Councilor Max Vogt said that when he hosts meetings with constituents over coffee, the primary topic is often Centralia’s streets.
“Everybody talks about this. So I think this is somewhat of an easy sell because we’re going to talk about when we didn’t have it, how much we need this, and how if you want to continue to work on roads, this has to be passed,” he said.
