No big secret, but Auburn’s streets are in bad shape, and the City doesn’t have the bucks it once had in the kitty to fix the big ones.

Which is why the Transportation Benefit District Board expects on Monday to consider and possibly approve a $20 car tab fee and to mull possible options, strategies and actions for raising money to make sorely-needed transportation fixes within the district.

“State law authorizes the board to enact the fee, and it is expected to generate approximately $800,000,” Kevin Snyder, director of community development and public works for the City of Auburn, said Tuesday. “And what we are proposing for the board to consider in terms of how to spend that money is to focus it on street maintenance efforts for appropriately-classified roads.

“Under state law, we can’t spend it on every road type in the City. It generally has to be … collector or higher arterial roads in our city. So the roads that take more of the traffic would be the roads eligible. By state law, we can’t spend it on residential streets,” Snyder said.

The meeting is at 5 p.m. in the Council Chambers at Auburn City Hall, 25 W. Main.

The board, which the City Council formed in 2011, is composed of the mayor and members of the seven-person City Council, but under state law it is a separate entity from the council, having its own taxing authority, and the mayor is its chairperson. The boundaries of the district encompass Auburn’s current city limits.

Should the board decide to implement the $20 vehicle license fee, several steps would follow. That is, after the resolution action, the actual collection of those monies would not start for six months, and during that time the board would be required to work with the Department of Licensing and Department of Revenue to set up the necessary protocols and procedures.

“So, people wouldn’t necessarily see it show up as a charge when they are licensing their vehicles for a minimum of six months, per state law,” Snyder said.

The funding mechanism for local streets, Save Our Streets, is an entirely separate entity from the TBD. Its schedule for residential street fixes in 2016 includes the following:

• F Street Southeast, from East Main Street to 4th Street Southeast: rebuild street, drainage and water, .24 miles, total cost $704,000.

• 21st Street Northeast, Auburn Way North to I Street Northeast: rebuild street and drainage, .1 miles, $271,000.

• 25th Street Southeast (M Street Southeast to R Street Southeast): rebuild street, drainage, water and perform an LID survey for sewer, .25 mile, $872,000.

The agenda of the TBD meeting calls as well for approval of the TBD’s 2015 Annual Report.

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