by Dennis Dalman
editor@thenewsleaders.com
Starting Jan. 1, shoppers will pay a quarter-cent more for each dollar they spend in Stearns County for the next five years for a roadwork fund.
The five-year tax is estimated to raise about $23 million.
The Stearns County Board of Commissioners voted 3-2 to initiate the quarter-cent sales tax, which is expected to raise nearly $5 million per year in revenue for roadwork.
Stearns County Engineer Jodi Teich told the commissioners there is a pressing need to do urgent roadwork, including road resurfacing, a bridge replacement, improvements at some intersections and road reconstruction projects. However, Teich added, there are not enough funds.
All commissioners expressed reluctance to raise taxes. They considered doubling the wheelage tax (now $10), but couldn’t muster enough interest to do that.
Voting in favor of the tax were commissioners DuWayne Mareck, Steve Notch and Joe Perske. Voting against the tax were commissioners Leigh Lenzmeier and Jeff Mergen.
“It’s always a concern to burden taxpayers, but this is something we must do,” said Perske, a Sartell resident who represents Commissioner District 2 on the county board.
The combined sales-tax rate in the cities of the greater St. Cloud area, including Sartell and St. Joseph, will be almost 7.4 percent with the quarter-cent extra added. That is slightly above the state average because of the half-cent regional sales tax the five cities have agreed to in recent years.
A wheelage tax is added to motorist costs when they renew their license tabs. Fifty-one of Minnesota’s 87 counties voted to become part of the wheelage-tax program, including Stearns County, which receives about $1.4 million a year from distribution of that tax revenue from the Minnesota Driver and Vehicle Services Department.
