FAIRMONT– The Martin County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday held a public hearing on the consideration of a Countywide Transportation Sales and Use Tax.

The board had just in the past two months asked County Engineer Kevin Peyman to prepare materials prior to the public hearing.

Peyman said that the highway department’s budget has two sides, construction and maintenance and that the sales tax deals with the construction side.

He said that Highway Users Tax Distribution Fund (HUTDF) makes up the majority of the funding and that 60 percent goes toward construction, which is about $6.3 million this year, and that 40 percent goes into maintenance.

“The property tax levy, we spend all of that on maintenance currently,” Peyman said. “All of our construction dollars is spent either through state money or wheelage tax.”

He said revenue for 2025 is $6.5 million for construction and allotment of HUTDF is $5.1 million.

“Of our construction, 97 percent is funded with that and 3 percent is with the local portion, which is the wheelage tax currently,” Peyman said.

He spent some time breaking down the distribution fund. When it comes to the property tax levy, Peyman said that the Martin County Highway Department’s levy for 2025 is $2.7 million, which is 20 percent of the revenue all on the maintenance side.

“The total level was $22 million and the highway department gets about 12 percent of the total county level,” he said.

Peyman shared that the Martin County road system consists of 522 total miles, 282 which is paved and 240 of gravel. There are 177 bridges and 89 bridges on county road.

“The average construction cost for standard bituminous overlay… is roughly $600,000 per mile,” Peyman said.

At a roughly $5.1 million allotment per year and $600,000 a mile, Peyman said if all they did was overlays it would take 33 years just to overlay the entire 522 miles in the system once.

During his presentation Peyman also touched on some changes to the 2025 legislative session which includes a reduction to the 2026-2029 auto parts sales tax dedication to HUTDF.

He also spoke some of road damage due to vehicle traffic and pointed out that Martin County is very agricultural-based, which is in itself not negative, but does result in a lot of semi-truck traffic, which is harder on roads.

Next he went into some info on wheelage tax. In 2013, the state legislator gave counties some options to help keep up with their road work. Two of the options were wheelage tax and local option sales and use tax.

Wheelage tax is a tax levied on vehicles and while it was originally $10, it’s now up to $20 per year when vehicles are registered. It’s given back to counties and can help fund road work. Currently 55 of 87 counties in the state collect wheelage tax and Martin County collects $10 per vehicle.

“That generates about $220,000 for us annually. It’s used to help supplement our construction,” Peyman said.

The local option sales tax, the other option given to counties to help fund construction, is a resolution that needs to be passed and the money collected can only pay for specific transportation projects.

“It’s generally not used to pay for 100 percent of one project. It’s used to supplement the state aid side to cover a lot more,” Peyman explained.

He said Martin County is expected to generate $1.5 million to $2 million annually from a half-cent sales tax.

“Our construction program for the year could basically increase by 40 percent per year… we could basically do a lot more construction each year,” Peyman said.

Currently 57 of the 87 counties in the state are using the Transportation Local Option Sales and Use Tax. Peyman said the sales tax would be collected for 20 years or until all of the previously indicated projects are complete. He added that a resolution can always be passed to change the projects.

One citizen, Wes Anderson, spoke during the public comment portion of the public hearing. Anderson has been a member of the Fraser Township board for 26 years and also an EDA board member, as well as a farmer.

Anderson agreed with Peyman that semi-trucks are “tearing the roads up.” He said that when he travels to Fairmont from north of town, by the time he gets to Bixby corner, he’s counted eight semis.

“Ag has been the breadbasket for Martin County, but ag is hard on our infrastructure, that’s true,” he said.

Anderson said he likes the wheelage tax and he’d like to see semi-trucks pay $20.

“That’s what farming or ag business is. You pay the expense to do your business just like any other business,” he said.

While Peyman agreed with what Anderson said, he said that wheelage tax didn’t differ from type of vehicle.

“I wish there was a way we could recoup based on weight and damage to the road but I don’t think we have that tool in our belt unfortunately,” he said.

When the public hearing portion closed, Peyman said the board had some time to decide because if and when passed, it would go into effect on January 1.

Commissioner Billeye Rabbe made a motion to pass resolution to approve the transportation sales and use tax. Commissioner Joe Loughmiller seconded it.

“As I’ve had a chance to discuss this the past month, I have very strongly gotten the sense that people are in favor of it,” Loughmiller said.

Other commissioners agreed with him, however, Commissioner Richard Koons said he thinks the motion should include a dissolution of the wheelage tax at the end of the year.

Peyman said he understood what Koons wanted but that he thought they were separate resolutions.

“The motion can state, ‘with the intent to remove…,'” Koons said.

Loughmiller, however, said he thought it made sense to keep the wheelage tax, especially considering the rise of construction costs.

“My take on it is, we’re talking about a need to have an increased funding for roads and bridges and construction…. I’m not ready to say, ‘yeah, I can support removing wheelage tax’… because the need for it is pretty apparent,” Loughmiller said.

Koons said that Martin County residents were being asked to pick up an additional 70 percent of $2 million a year, and that he wanted to give them back $200,000 a year.

“I’m not ready to support this without the wheelage tax being taken away,” Koons said.

Rabbe interjected and said that her motion was to pass a resolution to approve the transportation sales and use tax.

The motion passed 4-1 with Koons opposed. It’s expected that the board will talk more about the wheelage tax at a later date.