It happened earlier this week without much fanfare.

 

The 1/2% local option sales tax went into effect Oct. 1 in Wright County.

 

The tax was approved June 1 by the Wright County Board of Commissioners, and is in effect until Dec. 31, 2022, or until revenues raised are efficient to cover the identified transportation improvements, whichever occurs first.

 

Chances are highly unlikely the tax will expire before 2022. Based on projections, the tax will raise between $5 million and  $6 million a year.

 

The county has already identified 16 projects with a price tag of $78 million, and of the 513 miles of roads in the county, it is estimated 300 miles do not meet current standards for shoulder width and safe inslope design.

 

When the board voted to pass the tax, they based their decision, in part, on the amount of money the county needed to raise to make progress on all the road improvements required in the county over the next 15 to 20 years. 

 

The county needs $6 million a year for pavement preservation on 25 to 30 miles of roads, $6 million a year to reconstruct and expand one to four miles of roads and $1.5 million a year for bridge and safety improvements.

 

The options included doing nothing and continue to fall behind, raise property taxes, or implement a local option sales tax.

 

To raise approximately $6 million a year, the county would have to increase the levy by 10%, which equates to about $70 per household for a typical residential property valued at $200,000, or $366 a year for a business valued at $500,000.

 

The sales tax is estimated to cost about $48 per year for a medium income household because between 20% and 30% of the revenue would come from non-residents making purchases within the county.

 

The board also based its decision on the fact that 33% of Minnesota counties have already implemented a local options sales tax for transportation because historically, the state has not come through with enough funding.

 

At the June 1 meeting before the vote, Commissioner Michael Potter said, “More and more counties are adopting this because they all have the same bad taste in their mouth about how the legislature dealt with this.”

 

The tax covers most items where state sales tax can be collected.