06/08/2026
Later this week, the administration will formally ask the Terre Haute City Council to adopt a local city specific wheel tax. Under state law HEA 1461, a city must have a local option wheel tax to qualify for additional state road paving dollars in the Lane Mile Direct Distribution program. Terre Haute residents already pay a wheel tax to the county at the BMV. Starting in 2027 the rate will remain the same and the only change is the routing of dollars from the state to the city, instead of passing through the county. You will NOT be charged a county and city wheel tax, just the city tax if you live within city limits or the county tax if you live in the county.
In 2025, the state legislature made several changes that are impacting how local governments fund essential services:
• Property tax reforms are limiting the growth of local revenue
• State funding programs that have historically supported local road projects are being reduced or restructured
• Communities are increasingly expected to rely on local funding tools to maintain infrastructure
Due to the rising price of fuel and inflation, I am requesting that the Terre Haute City Council keep the wheel tax flat with NO INCREASES at $15 for 2027 AND 2028. The cost of paving has increased dramatically over the last 10 years. To maintain our current levels of paving, we will have to use other sources of revenue. Our goal is to increase our local paving dollars through gaming revenue dollars and EDIT instead of increasing the wheel tax.
To put it simply, we will not be asking you for more money when you register your vehicles for the next two years. We are going to plan for an increase of $2 in 2029. This has been a difficult decision. Based on our projected gaming tax revenues and several projects coming in under budget, we will use other sources of revenue to account for increases in paving costs for as long as possible.
I released a video on this topic several weeks ago. That video is linked in the comments. It offers a longer explanation of why the wheel tax is needed by state law to qualify for additional state dollars for paving. I know that no one likes to pay taxes and I understand that the cost to live is simply rising too fast. I hope you all understand that we are pushing off raising this tax for two full years and requesting a $2 increase in 2029. Under state law, the wheel tax can be set as high as $40. But Hoosiers are hurting and I cannot justify going higher than the rate we have and the 2029 rate.
We are working to finalize our 2027 paving plan based off of data on our street conditions. Once that is completed, we will update our Datahub maps online and publish a separate post with that tentative plan. The City of Terre Haute is home to over 760 Lane Miles of streets. Lane Miles, or "mainline" miles, are the length of the roadway (i.e. centerline miles) multiplied by the number of lanes.
This means there are over 4 million feet of streets that the city has to keep maintained, safe, and accounted for.
