St. Louis County adds sales tax for roads

A sales tax for road repair will roll forward in northern Minnesota's St. Louis County despite opposition from some leaders in its cities.

County commissioners passed the half-percent sales tax last week, even though Duluth Mayor Don Ness and some others spoke publicly about their opposition to where the money will be spent.

The estimated $10.5 million raised annually will go toward roads and bridges throughout the county, prioritized by safety and need of repair. About 30 percent of the county's 1,500 miles of paved road are in "very poor to poor condition," according to county leaders.

"There are 26 bridges that were built in 1938 … They need to be fixed," Commissioner Keith Nelson said after the meeting. "Largely we're looking at a lot of safety concerns."

Ness had argued — both on Facebook and at a news conference — that the tax was getting pushed to a board vote too quickly and will disproportionately draw from Duluth and Hermantown, which have most of the county's retailers but only a small portion of county roads. An estimated $6 million of the annual tax would be generated from businesses in Duluth; another $1 million from businesses in Hermantown, Ness pointed out, while Duluth has less than 1.5 percent of the county's roads and Hermantown has about 2 percent. In Duluth, the county maintains only about 10 percent of the roads, Ness said.

Ness said that the process could have benefited from more thoughtful discussion with stakeholders throughout the county.

"Our city engineers have been kind of scrambling and looking for solutions with county engineers," Ness said. "It felt like we just ran out of time."

About a third of the tax money raised will come from non-county residents who shop in St. Louis County and use the roads, according to the county.

Businesses districts in Duluth and Hermantown also benefit from county residents shopping there, Nelson had pointed out.

The Legislature gave counties the ability to implement a local option sales tax for transportation funding in 2013. Six counties had passed the tax, according to the Association of Minnesota Counties: Wadena, Olmsted, Rice, Douglas, Becker and Beltrami. Fillmore and Todd counties also passed it, effective Jan. 1.

The new St. Louis County tax passed on a 5-1 vote and is scheduled to go into effect April 1. It will be applied to most everything except food, clothing and vehicles. Vehicles bought from a dealer will instead incur a one-time tax of $20.

Right after the vote on the tax, commissioners unanimously approved a motion to "engage with all municipalities and townships for discussion on mutually beneficial projects" that the tax could fund.

Later last week, the Duluth City Council reconsidered a $5-per-month street maintenance fee imposed on property owners over the summer. Some council members talked about raising the fee, which now generates nearly $3 million per year. Others talked about lowering it. They will likely decide by year's end.