Ohio County: The Amish Need To Pay For Damaging The Roads
In one corner of the Buckeye State, the matter of paying for road repairs has put the spotlight on the Amish.
Williams County, Ohio is seeking to raise funds for road maintenance – via a $5 license plate fee increase. But what about the Amish, who in Ohio – like most states – aren’t required to have plates on their buggies?
Williams County locals are complaining that the Amish do their part in damaging the roads – but don’t have to pay the same fees they do for repairs.
The county is home to two Amish communities – the main one being a settlement of 200 Amish people near the town of Bryan.
In response, the Williams County Commissioner is going to try to get the Amish to give free-will donations. From the Bryan, Ohio Times:
Commissioner Scott Lirot said he’s had more complaints expressed to him about members of the Amish community not paying the fee, since their horse drawn buggies are not required to be licensed, but that the horses still damage the roads.
In answer, Roth said he discussed the issue with Holmes County officials, which has a large Amish population. It’s Wikipedia entry estimates 48% of the county’s population in 2020 was Amish.
Roth said there is a steering committee in that county that acts as a go between with the Amish community and government officials.
There, the Amish community has agreed to donate $75 per buggy per year, which then gets distributed to government agencies.
Roth said he also plans on proposing a similar donation idea to local Amish in Williams County.
Will the Amish be up for it? I can’t speak for them, but my guess is that if approached in this way, they would most likely be agreeable.
Whether the final figure ends up being $75 or something else, the solution is not a novel one. Amish have contributed in this way in other communities, notably in Holmes County, Ohio, as noted.
Interestingly, next-door Indiana is unusual among states, in that license plates are required on buggies (at least in some jurisdictions).
This formalizes the fee-collection process. Most, if not all other states with Amish populations, do not have this requirement, however.
The Amish are “easy targets” for this sort of complaint – and not without justification. The Amish use the roads, and do contribute to road damage with their horse-drawn vehicles (and in some cases, their steel-wheeled tractors).
If the mechanism for addressing road maintenance costs is a license plate that Amish buggies aren’t required to have, then there is a gap there. And you can understand why non-Amish residents might raise questions. So hopefully they’ll be able to work something out where everyone is happy here.
Sometimes resolving these kinds of questions smoothly can depend on the health of relations between Amish and non-Amish people in a given community. But if asked, I can’t see this being seen by Amish as an unreasonable request.
Amish
First off what is Ohio using for their roads, also do they allow heavy trucks who also damage roads, everybody most places expect road repairs.
Move to Wisconsin you will be welcomed!
I’m not necessarily opposed to the idea of the Amish paying their fair share for the public services they use, and as Erik pointed out, if asked the Amish might not have a problem paying either. That being said I kinda get the feeling the Amish are just being used as a reason for people to complain about paying more money for fees that they just don’t want to pay. The Amish population in this county is less than 1 percent of the overall population and the community at Bryan has only been there since 2023. If the Amish didn’t live here I bet these people would just find another reason to complain about that $5 increase.
That is a good point as far as how small the Amish population there is compared to the full county population. 200 maybe 250 total Amish (there is part of another small settlement also in this county as well) vs. a total population of 36,000+.
I think that some are more concerned with a sense of fairness than others, and that might be more what this is about – or as you said, just using the Amish as a “complaint vector”.
Road repairs, why not
Here’s just a thought…given the fact that most Amish children don’t attend public school even though they pay school taxes like everyone else. Perhaps they could take that money to repair the roads. They’re paying for something they don’t use, why not make the most of what they’re already contributing?
Another Thieving County
Again, lets pick on the non-voting residents. I see that the $75 donation is going to “other agencies” How much does cost for vehicle registration in Ohio? I can’t remember the last time I saw a horse and buggy doing burnouts on the back roads of Lancaster. Metal wheel tractors, I sure can do some damage, but how many Amish use anything but horse powered machinery. I ask, does a 1 ton horse that rarely travel on the road do as much damage as a 3 ton Tesla or 4700 lb SUV or the 8 ton school bus with auto-chains. Maybe the Amish should vote greedy politician like this out of office. What type of vehicle does Mr. Lirot drive?
Cars/trucks damage roads not buggies
Cars/trucks damage roads not buggies.
Horses and Buggies aren’t heavy enough to damage the roads.
So leave the Amish out of it!