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The group, Minnesota 2020, says user fees such as gasoline and vehicle taxes aren’t supplying enough revenue to match rising road-construction costs, so counties are raising property taxes to make up the difference.
“The reality is that in Minnesota, we’re going backward,” said Matt Entenza, Minnesota 2020 board chairman and a former DFL state legislator.
Winona County Engineer David Kramer said the funding crunch for local roads extends to Winona County, which likely will cancel a planned road project Tuesday because of construction costs that have escalated 35 percent to 50 percent in the past year alone.
State highways and bridges receive the bulk of new revenues from the transportation bill, which expedited the scheduled construction start for Winona’s Interstate Bridge from 2017 to 2014.
The bill also boosted state road funding by about 14 percent for rural counties, according to a Minnesota 2020 estimate. However, the boost in revenues doesn’t close the gap in purchasing power lost through years of inflation, Minnesota 2020 spokesmen said. Prior to this year’s increase, the last gas tax hike in Minnesota occurred in 1988.
Minnesota 2020 surveyed 56 county highway engineers, and three-fourths of them said their county roads have deteriorated in the past decade.
Kramer said he didn’t respond to the survey but said he echoed its thesis.
“The increase in funds that came with the transportation bill, it’s very welcome and appreciated,” Kramer said. “But I do have some strong concerns that inflation will more than eat that up.”
Spiraling petroleum prices are boosting construction costs, Kramer said, and could nix plans to resurface at least one Winona County road. Kramer will recommend on Tuesday that the county board cancel one of three planned road-resurfacing project after bids came in more than 20 percent over budget.
The county had planned to resurface portions of County roads 30, 29 and 11 in 2008. However, the three bids came in a combined $477,000 over budget, spurring Kramer to recommend scrapping the County Road 30 resurfacing until 2009 or later.
Contact Mark Sommerhauser at (507) 453-3514 or msommerhauser@winonadailynews.com
