West Midlands Mayor Andy Street is to impose a £12 increase in council tax bills across the West Midlands.
Most of the cash will be used for schemes to cut congestion on the roads such as new cycle lanes and expanding park and ride facilities at railway stations.
But it comes on top of a series of other rises, and it means council tax bills in Birmingham are set to increase by almost £100 this year.
Mr Street said: “If we are going to achieve some of the changes people say they want to see - people say they want more to encourage cycling, more to cut congestion, they want action - then we have to deliver cash from wherever can.
“If we want that change then we have got to put a small charge in this way.”
Birmingham City Council is consulting about plans to increase council tax by almost five per cent, adding £71.90 a year to the bill for a band D home.
And after the consultation was launched, the Government raised the maximum increase councils can impose without requiring a referendum to almost six per cent - which means bills could increase further.
On top of that, West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner David Jamieson has launched his own consultation about increasing the police precept, which is added to council tax bills, by £12.
There will also be a small increase, possibly around £1 a year, from the fire authority.
It means that bills for a band D home are set to increase by £97 a year in total.
And if Birmingham takes up the Government’s offer to increase bills even more then the increase will be around £110.
Households in other parts of the West Midlands including Solihull, Coventry, Dudley, Walsall, Sandwell and Wolverhampton, will also pay the police precept and mayoral precept.
And their local councils are likely to impose inflation-busting increases in a similar way to Birmingham, because they are struggling to cope with cuts in grant from central government.
West Midlands voters elected a regional mayor for the first time in May 2017. He has the power to add a mayoral precept to council tax bills to fund his work, and this will be the first time he has done so.
The £12 addition to band D bills includes £2 to fund the mayor’s office, raising more than £1 million to pay for costs such as staff, and £10 for transport, raising around £6 million.
Mr Street said he was aware council tax was increasing and his precept came to just 23p per household per week.
He said: “We have done what I considered to be the minimum we could possibly do.
“If you look at the scale of the office and admin services we have set up, it’s much smaller than in Manchester or London.”
