County votes down vehicle registration fee
The Butler County Commissioners have voted down a proposed $5 vehicle registration fee, saying they still need solutions for crumbling roads and bridges in Butler County.
The proposed fee, which came under heavy public scrutiny, would have generated funding to repair the county's aging infrastructure. If passed, it would have generated an estimated $920,000 annually.
The issue arose locally after the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation offered a $2 million incentive to counties enacting the fee.
In Butler County, 34 of 134 bridges are in need of repair. The county's estimate on the cost to repair a bridge in-house is $500,000 and the price of paving roads to last up to 10 years is roughly $100,000 per mile.