Corpus Christi mayor calls for expiration of street user maintenance fee to provide taxpayer relief

3 News, KIII
Author: Brian Burns
Published: 6:39 PM CDT August 22, 2023

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — The Street User Maintenance fee that all residents and businesses pay in Corpus Christi is set to expire at the end of the year. 

Corpus Christi Mayor Paulette Guajardo is urging the city council to let the fee expire to save taxpayers money. 

"Any fee implemented is not welcomed. It's another tax if you will on our residents," she said. 

Guajardo echoed what many residents said 10 years ago when the street maintenance fee was added to residents' and business owners' utility bills. However, she said it got the city started on fixing the biggest concern on most people's minds. 

"We have had unprecedented investment in streets and progress, especially the last six to seven years. So we've invested over 500 million dollars in streets. I have proposed and council members have also proposed that the street fee be non renewed," she said. 

Guajardo said the $5.38 each resident pays each month generates more than $12 million a year. Corpus Christi Public Works Director Ernesto De La Garza said the money is used on the larger streets so the city can focus on smaller residential streets.

"We use the 12 million or 13 million that we collect from the fee to pay a contractor to do work on streets like Everhart, Staples, Cimarron. Those are the streets that we can use contractors for then not use our in house forces because they require more traffic control and more resources to handle," he said.

Guajardo said the council will vote on the fee renewal in December. She said people could use the break. 

"So it's time. It has been almost ten years and again my recommendation is going to be to non renew that street fee and give our residents relief," she said. 

The mayor says she believes the almost $13 million are available in the latest $1.5 billion budget.