On Tuesday, the Polk County Board of Commissioners met at the Polk County Government Center and reviewed the preliminary budgets of the highway department and veteran services.
Polk County Highway Engineer Richard Sanders presented the proposed preliminary Highway budget to the board, and it included an expected net revenue in the amount of $15,745,000 and total expenditures to be in the amount of $11,914.967. Also included in the budget was an estimated $8.9 million spent on construction projects and just over one million dollars allocated toward county road projects. Also included in the preliminary budget was $3.5 million for salaries and wages.
The local option sales tax has been increased from 0.25% to 0.50%, which Sanders estimated to gain 1.8 million dollars of revenue from the additional tax. “Since 2018, the county has had a local option sales tax,” said Sanders, “So if you look at a receipt that you buy on goods out at Walmart that are taxable (not clothes, not food) but everything else you would buy out there you’re going to see the state sales tax you’ll see the local option sales tax is 8.75% and the counties is .05%.” The local option sales tax in Polk County is set at the maximum percentage according to state statute.
Of the 1.8 million dollars of that revenue, $950,000 will be used to renovate the Climax Bridge. The Climax bridge project is estimated to cost $14 million between Polk County and Trail County. Sanders stated that Polk County will receive reimbursement and bonding dollars to fund this project. “Polk County’s share will be about $7 million, with most of the share going to Trail County,” said Sanders. “Because of all the preliminary and engineering things we did, we will get reimbursed for this. We will also receive bonding dollars from the state as we did for the CSAH 15 box culvert project.” Polk County is set to receive approximately $3 million in bonding dollars from the state for the Climax Bridge renovation.
Local option sales tax dollars will also be allocated toward the box culvert replacement on County state and highway 21, west of trunk highway 220, the CSAH 9 bridge replacement five miles west of Crookston, and roadwork on CSAH 15.
Following the Highway Department’s preliminary budget proposals, the board reviewed the Veteran Services preliminary budget. Veteran Services Officer Kurt Ellefson gave the proposed budget to the board, which included the total budget being in the amount of $203,908.
This would be an increase of $14,062. Most ($13,562) of the increase would go toward increased wages and benefits within Veteran Services.
