Viewpoint: Transportation funding will help Woodbury

Bill Hargis, Viewpoint Writer, Woodbury Bulletin
Published Wednesday, March 12, 2008

The city of Woodbury would like to thank its local legislators, Rep. Marsha Swails, Rep. Julie Bunn and Sen. Kathy Saltzman, for their affirmative vote on the Transportation Finance Bill. This funding will go a long way toward helping fund necessary road and bridge projects. These user fees are appropriate sources with which to fund our transportation needs and will help relieve the burdens on local property taxes.

For a number of years, transportation funding has been one of our primary legislative initiatives. Woodbury was among many cities testifying before the state Legislature early this year regarding the increasing impact on local property taxes of expenditures for road projects. The below chart shows “Municipal State Aid” (MSA) for streets, funded through the gasoline tax, compared to road expenditures supported by local property taxes.

In 1994, MSA supplied all the city's funding needs, and no property taxes had to be levied to support road rehabilitation. Due to static MSA funding, an absence of state funding for interchange improvements and growing transportation improvement needs, the estimated annual city cost for road projects has grown to more than $3 million, accounting for roughly 12 percent of the 2008 tax levy. The city funding shown on the chart represents capital and debt expenditures only, not operating costs. It includes the city's debt associated with the Lake Road and Tamarack Road interchange projects at I-494 that previously would have been funded by the state, and city cost participation in county roadway projects.

The transportation bill recently approved by the Legislature will provide increased funding to municipalities through the gasoline tax. The estimated increases amount to $416,000 by 2010 and $590,000 by 2012, which will help reduce future reliance on the local property taxes for transportation funding.