Owners of vehicles registered in Butler County will not be paying $5 more this year.

The county commissioners on Thursday reluctantly scuttled a proposed ordinance enacting the fee, which would have generated revenue for bridge and road work, amid growing opposition.

County Commissioner Leslie Osche, board chairman, explained the public distrusts government to not keep raising the fee if it would be implemented.

Osche lamented the county and its municipalities, which would have received any money the county did not use, would be bereft of the funding.

“It's an unfortunate day for Butler County,” she said.

Commissioner Kim Geyer agreed, saying detractors did not understand how the fee was unrelated to general fund expenditures.

Geyer gave a presentation on state allocations for road work, pointing out the anemic funding the county receives.

She showed the Commonwealth Financing Authority's Multimodal Transportation Fund awarding more than $158 million with an average amount of $627,672 since 2013.

Allegheny County received the most at nearly $21 million. Butler County received less than 3 percent of the total.

“We are a piece of that 3 percent,” Geyer said.

For the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation's Multimodal Transportation Fund, $40 million was awarded since 2013.

The average amount awarded was more than $1 million.

The county was part of the group receiving a total of 6 percent of that funding.

“We are not getting any return on our investment,” Geyer said

She said some counties that set the fee added an end date to assess it, making it a temporary increase for vehicle owners.

“We could have done that,” Geyer said.

She said 6,500 elderly drivers, who pay the reduced $10 vehicle registration, would have been exempt from the $5 increase.

Geyer said there was political bullying behind the scenes to create opposition to the fee. She did not elaborate on who the bully was on the record.

Commissioner Kevin Boozel said he heard from roughly 170 residents, the majority of whom did not want the fee.

“It was a 'no' for them,” he said.

The county estimated receiving $920,000 annually from the fee. PennDOT is offering a $2 million incentive to adopt the fee.

Boozel said the county could use the revenue.

“No doubt in my mind we need it,” he said.

Boozel said adding a new fee is not the way to obtain funding the state should be sending to the county anyway.

He described the sentiment of residents opposing the fee: “This is a new way to pull dollars out of my wallet.”

Boozel questioned why the county's state legislators were supporting the lobbying to expand sheriff's authority, but are not involved in providing more funding to the county.

He stressed the state mishandled the program, pressuring counties with an incentive deadline.

All three commissioners agreed opponents to the fee need to help come up with solutions to funding bridge and road work.

According to the county, 34 of its 134 bridges need repaired.

Osche said PennDot's original deadline of late spring was pushed back to the end of the year for counties to take advantage of the incentive.

The commissioners received a letter from the Butler County Republican Committee opposing the fee, stating it would be another hit to the taxpayers no matter what the amount would be.

“It's our job to hold them accountable,” said Ed Natali, committee chairman, in an interview.

However, Natali stressed there was no implied political threat to the commissioners.

“Not at all,” he said.

Osche said in an interview the letter alone did not sway her vote.

“I don't think I can attribute it to any one source,” she said.

During the meeting's public comment period, only three people spoke about the proposed fee. One opposed the ordinance and two supported it.

Cranberry Township Supervisor Dick Hadley, board chairman, said the revenue from such a fee is essential.

“If you don't implement the fee, you can't access the money,” Hadley said. “It would be a disservice, in my opinion, to disregard this program. This needs to be done.”