Road money rolling to south metro

Scott and Dakota counties, which between them are expected this year to get less state highway aid than they got five years ago, are on the cusp of a $75 million spending spree on roads over the next decade.

That is the projected payoff from the Legislature's controversial transportation deal, which includes a higher gas tax.

"It's a big increase," Mark Krebsbach, transportation director for Dakota County, said of the $50 million targeted for his county. "It certainly helps."

But he and others emphasized that it will cover only a portion of what is needed to fight congestion in the growing region.

Take Scott County:

This year, it's in line for about $5.8 million this year in state-aid highway revenues.

That figure essentially has not changed in five years, even as its population has soared.

The new transportation funding deal is projected to yield Scott County $25 million in new revenue over the next decade, according to estimates from the research office of the Minnesota Senate. One state analyst calls that a "dramatic" difference.

But consider this: The fix that commuters in the western part of the county most desperately long for, an erasure of the stoplights north of the river that bottle up traffic for miles along Hwy. 169, would cost up to $150 million. And that's just one project.

However, what can be done with that kind of money?

When the question was put to Krebsbach's counterpart in Scott County, Lezlie Vermillion, before the bill passed, she mentioned projects such as:

• Safety improvements to Marschall Road, in Shakopee, scene of "four fatalities in the last year," and

On the Dakota side, Krebsbach said, top priorities include that county's stretch of Hwy. 13, particularly the intersection with County Road 5, in Burnsville, which needs a new interchange. Other priorities:

• A third northbound lane on Cedar Avenue, in the vicinity of Interstate 35E, in Apple Valley and Eagan

• The Cedar Avenue bus rapid transit project, and

• Acceleration of replacements for the Hastings and Lafayette bridges

The added funds come thanks to a deal in which rural elected officials agreed to a smaller bite of the new money than they get of the existing revenue stream.

That's an average annual bump of 13 percent for Polk, typical of rural counties, and 19 percent for Scott, roughly on par with other metro counties.

Officials cautioned however that the phase-in of the gas tax increase means more of that money flows in on the back end of the deal. "This money doesn't show up next week," Krebsbach said. "The full impact is not until 2012."

As needs have grown and state aid been flat, counties have turned to their own property taxes for highway funding.

In Dakota, for instance the property tax for transportation rose by more than 50 percent in the last four years, from about $6 million to about $10 million. Similarly, the Scott County Board for the past couple of years has put an additional $1 million a year into roads and bridges, for a total of about $8 million.