Three Hillside road districts are dipping into savings as maintenance costs outrun their funding

Three self-funded Hillside road service areas will draw a combined $145,000 from their own reserves to keep their roads maintained through the rest of the year, a sign that what these neighborhoods collect in road taxes is no longer keeping up with what the work costs.

Bear Valley's draw is the biggest, $70,000, mostly for ditching and clearing culverts, after the city's maintenance division told the district its current tax rate wasn't bringing in enough. Bear Valley's own voters had already reached the same conclusion: in April they lifted their tax cap from 1.50 to 2.25 mills, and it wasn't close, 85 to 13. Rabbit Creek View and Heights is drawing $60,000 for maintenance and snow removal, after its road contract needed a $75,000 increase in July, and the SRW Homeowner's district is drawing $15,000 for summer repair.

Because these districts fund their own roads through a tax on the property inside them, the reserves being spent and the cap Bear Valley raised are the neighborhoods covering their own rising costs, not a draw on the city. Each district's elected board requested the money and says enough is left for winter. The Assembly takes up the three requests Tuesday.