Contact Info:Scott McGarvey
Community Relations Manager
City of Moberly
660-269-7645
smcgarvey@cityofmoberly.com
For Immediate Release
City Proposes Transportation Trust Renewal
The City of Moberly’s Transportation Trust sales tax is on the ballot at the April 8th general election. The Trust allows for continued funding of the City’s street and sidewalk maintenance through a 1/2 cent sales tax that renews every 10-15 years and will expire in 2026.
“This renewable sales tax is the lifeblood of our City’s street & sidewalk systems,” said Tom Sanders, Public Works Director. “The corridors that connect our neighborhoods and business districts wouldn’t be possible without these funds. This is not a new tax and it does not increase over the course of the renewal period, even as costs continue to rise.”
Passed in 1986, residents supported the sales tax renewal in 1995, 2005, and 2015. The Transportation Trust was originally proposed to give the City a consistent source of funding to maintain transportation arteries. The sales tax applies to retail and personal property sales and is restricted to only funding transportation improvements.
Since 2015, the tax brought in an average of $1.2 million per year, with just over $1.5 million in 2024. The annual budget typically allocates $750,000 to planned street maintenance, $150,000 to sidewalk installation and upgrades, and $150,000 to miscellaneous unplanned repairs. Remaining annual funds are used for new developments or matching funds for grants such as the Transportation Alternative Program (TAP) which funded city walking trails among other projects. The City currently has ten major grant projects in process, some of which provide an 80/20 or better fund match.
Street repairs are classified by a rating system that assigns priority based on cracks, curb condition, utility cuts and surface degradation. Maintenance can take a variety of forms including milling and overlay, which removes and replaces up to two inches of the existing roadway with new asphalt, extending the surface life by ten to twenty years. Other surface repairs, such as microsealing or Reclamite, apply a sealant that can add over five years of usable surface.
Alongside new sidewalk construction, the Transportation Trust also gives residents a sidewalk replacement cost share program through which the city pays 2/3 of the cost to replace a property owner’s sidewalk. Since the sales tax inception the City has partnered with homeowners to complete thousands of feet of sidewalks for hundreds of properties.
“A renewal of the sales tax will allow our city’s streets and trail system to continue to give us years of consistent life on which to grow our community,” said Community Relations Manager Scott McGarvey.
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