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Highway superintendent urges wheel-tax increase to avoid future road deterioration; culvert purchase approved
Summary
Minnehaha County Highway Superintendent Jacob Morris briefed commissioners on road-funding shortfalls and recommended increasing the wheel tax to preserve pavement condition; commissioners approved purchasing up to $130,000 in metal culverts for township repairs.
Minnehaha County Highway Superintendent Jacob Morris told the County Board of Commissioners on May 6 that the county’s current road revenues are not keeping pace with rising construction and maintenance costs and recommended increasing the wheel tax to avoid a substantial decline in road condition over the next decade.
Morris said the county last raised wheel tax rates in 1995 and noted costs for road materials have climbed sharply — from about $16.15 per ton of asphalt in 1995 to roughly $67 per ton in 2025 — while revenue has only grown about 2% per year since 2015. “If we were to spend $2,000,000 a year…to maintain where we’re at today would cost approximately $4,400,000,” Morris said, summarizing his pavement management study and five-year plan projections.
The pavement study Morris presented showed the county’s pavement condition index was 75.3 in 2023 and that, under…
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