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Funding
The question that gets asked most at the Road
Commission is: I pay all these property taxes , why can't I get my road
fixed? Actually to the surprise of most people, we do not get any
property tax. Not directly anyway. Some property tax does get back to
the roads in the form of Township participation on Local Road upgrades.
No property tax comes to us for maintenance of the roads. On the
average, 79% of your property tax goes to our education system, 18% goes
to the County (Not the Road Commission) and 3% goes to the Township. Two
Townships in Otsego County have a voted Road millage. Dover Township has
1 mill and Charlton Township has 2 mills that go to Roads. This millage
is controlled by the Township's and is used as a 75% match with Road
Commission funds to upgrade local Roads.
Public Act 51 of 1951 set up the funding for State Trunklines, County
Road Commissions, cities and villages. This act has been modified 63
times in the past 46 years and is quite complex but basically this is
how it works. When you buy a gallon of gasoline or diesel fuel in
Michigan, you are paying approximately 26 cents State tax. This breaks
down to 6 or 7 cents State Sales Tax (6% of the price) and 19 cents
State Highway Tax. This State Highway Tax and the cost of license plates
make up most of the Michigan Transportation Fund (MTF). 16% off the top
of this MTF monies goes to various State needs such as; Comprehensive
Transportation, The Secretary of State, DNR and other administrative
costs. Of the remaining monies, 20.5% goes to cities and villages, 41%
goes to the State Trunkline Fund and 38.5% goes to the County Road
Commissions. This money goes to each county road commission based on
where vehicles are registered, population and miles of roads in the
County. Of the Road Commissions share, 1% is held back as Snow Funds and
distributed in November of each year to Counties that averaged over 80
inches of snow in a 10 year period.
We received $ 3,317,508 of MTF funds 2000. We also received $ 246,694
from the Township's as matching money for construction of Local roads in
2000. Other revenues are generated each year by interest on deposits,
sale of surplus equipment, permits, mineral leases and gas wells. The
gas wells are from property that we own in deed like gravel pits and our
garage land. In 2000 we received $ 38,157 from these gas wells. Our
total budget for 2001 is just over 6.6 million dollars. One revenue we
are required to put in our budget that we never actually see the money
for is Federal and State grants.
In addition to the State tax, there is a Federal Tax in the amount of
18.3 cents a gallon. Some of this money does get back to our County.
This money is administered by the Michigan Department of Transportation
and can have several forms or categories. You may have heard of TEA21,
Cat "A", Cat "D", or STP funds? Most of these funds
are restrictive, must be applied for and give us 77% to 80% matching
money. Some roads we have used Federal Money on in recent years is Old
27, Alba Road, Marquardt Rd, Whitmarsh Rd. and Old State Rd. Federal
Money goes directly to a contractor and is not a part of our cash
revenues.
We have 40 employees, 834 miles of road to maintain, over 30 trucks plus
loaders, graders and a dozer. To prepare the average road for paving
costs about $ 30,000 a mile, seal coat is $ 20,000 a mile and black top
is $ 50,000 a mile. The cost for a tandem axle Road Commission truck
fully equipped has gone up to almost $ 100,000. We spent over $ 700,000
in 2000 on snow removal alone. In 2000 we put down over 3,000 tons of
salt on County roads and 9,000 tons on State highways. In addition we
put down over 12,000 yds of sand on both County and State roads.
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