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Commissioner Pearson
In The News . . .
Mon, 27 Jul 2009
Each month, the State Tax Commission distributes “Highway Cash” to 77 Oklahoma Counties. This money, derived from taxes on fuel, motor vehicles and gross production of oil, gas, asphalt and ores, is used for road maintenance.
When citizens voted for the fuel tax years ago, the money was intended for roads. However, over time, funds were diverted by legislators into other accounts, such as the Oklahoma Aeronautics Revolving Fund, the State Transportation Fund, the Education Reform Revolving Fund, the General Revenue Fund, and to funds for tribes, cities and towns. This left counties with approximately 1/3 of fuel tax collections with which to maintain and build roads.
A common belief is that where you buy gasoline determines which county receives the gasoline tax. Tax credit is returned to where you register your vehicle. It does not matter where you purchase fuel. Registering your vehicles in Logan County means more tax revenue returned to Logan County for maintaining and improving roads.
Another misconception is that property taxes go towards roads. A huge majority of “ad valorem” or property taxes, about 87%, goes to schools. The County Health Department receives about 2.5% and the County General Fund, which provides for courthouse utilities and upkeep, supplies for the jail, and salaries for elected officials, receives about 10%.
Complicated formulas are used in determining how the taxes are divided among the counties. The formulas can be downloaded by going to the Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service website, selecting “Extension Fact Sheets,” and doing a search for AGEC-889.
When the county receives Highway Funds from the State Tax Commission each month, it is divided among the three commissioner districts. The commissioners then apportion their district’s money into accounts for employee salaries, equipment, insurance, FICA, retirement and travel. The remainder goes into their “Maintenance and Operations” account. From this account, supplies for routine road maintenance are purchased.
The average amount received into district 2’s M & O fund for the first six months of 2009 was $24,649.14. It was this much only because Commissioner Pearson made some hard decisions on how to utilize money for much needed equipment and how to keep the payroll at a manageable size.
When you consider that fuel costs an average of $7,364.78 per month, and we are using approximately $10,500.00 of gravel per month, it doesn’t leave much for asphalt, road signs, tires, equipment repair, etc.
Due to growth in the south part of the county as well as the cost of inflation, the county’s income has not kept pace with what is required in order to maintain road infrastructure, much less make major improvements. However, there has been substantial growth in property taxes. At a commissioners’ meeting on March 31, Commissioner Pearson introduced a resolution stating that the commissioners would request the Excise Board to dedicate 50% of all new property tax-generated revenue go to the county’s Highway Fund, commencing with the 2009-2010 county budget. The resolution passed with all three commissioners voting “Aye.”
This resolution was designed in a way to minimize any impact on other county departments. It will not take away any funding they are presently receiving and their income will continue to grow along with the growth in population.
The Excise Board has taken the commissioners’ request under advisement. They plan to hold a meeting in late July or August to meet with all of the county department heads to receive their input. We are hoping that in the near future we will be able to report that this much needed funding has been approved by the Excise Board.