RICHMOND, IN — It’s official: Wayne County residents will soon be paying a wheel tax.
Wayne County Council members, except Jeff Cappa and Misty Hollis, voted Monday night in favor of the ordinance that taxes a statutory minimum of $7.50 and maximum of $212.60 per registered vehicle, depending on the vehicle’s age and classification.
The Local Option Highway User Tax is split into an excise and wheel tax. The excise tax, following the fee schedule pictured above, pertains to cars, vans and similar vehicles under 11,000 pounds; the wheel tax will apply to vehicles over 11,000 pounds and is set at a $40 flat rate.
According to the slide presented at the council’s Aug. 20 meeting, a majority of Wayne County registrants will pay $7.50, as more than 40,000 out of the 61,914 registered vehicles fall under the excise tax category.
The tax will go into effect next year and now opens the possibility for the city of the Richmond to enact its own wheel tax, something Mayor Ron Oler discussed last week as a possibility next year, pending the approval from the county.
Cappa said his no vote came from his concern that his constituents — most of whom live in Richmond — being double-taxed if a city ordinance passes as well.
“If Richmond Common Council chooses to do so, which they do by law under SB1 now, my constituents will be taxed,” he said. “Even though this body itself would not be imposing that double tax on the taxpayers, SB1 still sets the stage for this to happen.”
Cappa said he believed that the council had some time to evaluate the situation and hold further discussions with taxing bodies to make a collective decision.
Beth Leisure, who voted in favor of the tax after voting no last week, had concerns that if the county didn’t pass one, the city still could and then the county would be responsible for double-taxing taxpayers.
“We have to do it,” she said. “We don’t have a choice.”
Hollis, the other no vote, said she was aware the ordinance would pass, but she voted against it because she felt as if the council had more time to understand where the county stands.
“When I spoke to the Centerville town president on Friday and told him of the change of the ordinance and the amount of money he would probably be receiving, we still don’t know,” she said. “His response was that it isn’t really going to help because it was lower than going with a flat rate than what we originally had talked about.”
The money made from the tax will go toward maintaining and rebuilding roads and bridges in towns, cities and unincorporated areas.
Evan Weaver is a news and sports reporter at The Palladium-Item. Contact him on X (@evan_weaver7) or email at eweaver@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Richmond Palladium-Item: Wayne County drivers will pay excise tax on vehicles under 11,000 pounds starting in 2026
Reporting by Evan Weaver, Richmond Palladium-Item / Richmond Palladium-Item
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