MORRISTOWN, Vt. (WCAX) – Morristown is looking to give up ownership of several roads in town to save taxpayers money as towns and the state grapple with the soaring cost of maintaining them.
Morristown is heading down the road of ceding nearly 20 roads to private property owners.
“Although they’re short in length, they are very time-consuming for us to maintain,” said Jordan St. Onge, Morristown’s road commissioner. He said his crews are collectively spending hours plowing a handful of unpaved roads.
St. Onge says Wantanjay Farm Road has a single home at the end. Ledge Road is narrow and takes time for plows to turn around, cutting into the road budget. Ross Hill Road has only two houses on it, with a multimillion-dollar mansion, and the owners live in Vermont part-time. “It raises the question of whether it’s in the public good,” St. Onge said.
If approved by the Selectboard, the roads would become private, and the homeowners would have to pay for grading, plowing, and infrastructure repairs themselves.
Morristown Town Manager Brent Raymond says towns frequently look to save money by giving up or reclassifying roads. “It’s incumbent on any municipality’s leadership to consider the status of roads on a regular basis,” he said.
Morristown’s quest to keep local property taxes in line mirrors a similar struggle at the state level, where gas tax revenues are declining, and road repair costs and road crew benefits are rising.
In addition to local taxes, town roads and bridges are funded by state revenues.
“There’s been a problem brewing structurally for a while,” said Josh Hanford with the Vermont League of Cities and Towns.
Not only is the gas tax generating less revenue, but since the 1990s, a third of taxes on new vehicles sold go to the statewide education fund instead of the transportation fund.
Hanford says that over the last five years, education spending has consumed $225 million of these dollars, and the state could have drawn down almost $2 billion in federal funding for road projects if that money had stayed in the Transportation Fund.
“Not to maximize those federal resources doesn’t seem like a responsible way to manage our enterprises in the entire state budget,” Hanford said.
As the state ponders how best to fund roads and bridges, local towns are looking for new ways to cut costs.
