Cook County commissioners will be on hand on Monday, August 15 at 6 p.m. in the commissioners’ room at the Cook County courthouse to hear community comments for or against the implementation of a half cent transportation tax.
At a commissioner’s special work session in June, the county board discussed establishing a transportation tax that could generate about three quarters of a million dollars per year for the county.
Minnesota statute 297A.993 allows the county board to enact a transportation sales tax at a rate of up to one-half of one percent on retail sales and uses, and also establish an excise tax of $20 per motor vehicle purchased or acquired from any person engaged in the business of selling motor vehicles at retail.
Collection of this tax must be dedicated exclusively to payment of the capital costs of specified projects or improvements; payment of the costs, which may include both capital and operating costs, of a specific transit project or improvement; and payment of the capital costs of a Safe Routes to School program.
At the county board’s July 26 meeting, County Administrator Jeff Cadwell said a list of projects must be assembled and once the work has been done to complete them, the tax would end. Typically, he said, that would take about 20 years; however, he added the county board had the authority to end the tax any time it chooses to do so.
Commissioner Frank Moe said initially he suspected people in his district would oppose this tax, but he has since learned that many support it, “as long as there is a list of projects that is followed,” he said at the county board’s August 9 meeting.
Commissioner Garry Gamble expressed his concern at the board’s August 9 meeting that if the county adopted this tax it would make Cook County the highest taxed county in the state, tied with Bemidji and St. Louis County at 8.38 percent. Gamble noted that Lake County also had a high sales tax rate of 6.87 percent per one dollar spent, and he wondered if that would affect tourists’ decision to come to Cook County.
Currently, the state and federal government pay much of the cost to improve roads and bridges for projects submitted by the county engineer, but what it does not pay falls on the local taxpayers to make up. There is nearly one quarter of a billion dollars worth of road and bridge projects coming at the county.
“It’s important for people to come to this meeting to express their opinions,” said Commissioner Moe.
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