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Well, it happened in Winona a little more than a week ago.
That’s when a group of county highway engineers, along with the group Minnesota 2020, announced that while the recently enacted transportation bill pumps a significant amount of money into state roads, the county roads continue to crumble.
We already know county roads are awful. And it doesn’t make much difference to a person whether they’re traveling a federal, state, county or local road if it’s in between where they’re at and where they need to be.
It should come as no surprise that potholes line state roads, which are warped, beaten down and rapidly falling into disrepair. We notice it every time we look at our tires or need another wheel realignment. So it shouldn’t surprise us that county roads fare no better.
While the news conference was kicked off with much fanfare, there was surprisingly little news: The state will spend money on its roads, while cutting aid to individual counties, all of which are experiencing soaring construction costs, fueled largely by petroleum’s skyrocketing price.
While federal, state and even local politicians point the finger and stomp their feet, one message doesn’t seem to change. Residents expect a certain minimum level of service for their tax dollars. Part of that is that our roads are at least good enough where they don’t destroy tires and become a safety hazard by just driving on them. We should expect our tax dollars will be spent to keep these vital roadways in at least average condition.
But, we also know from Minnesota Department of Transportation statistics, that southern Minnesota — especially the southeast — has awful roads.
What makes this fact even more problematic is that so many of our communities in this area are tied together. We travel these roads often to get to places such as Winona, Rochester or La Crosse. When we use state, county, even local roads, it’s not just on some joyride, it’s part of everyday reality here. We use these county roads and state roads to get to work, to get food and to transport children.
With that in mind, Friday’s press conference shouldn’t have been anything new. Sadly, we shouldn’t have to hold a press conference to call attention to the roads’ poor condition, either.
Instead, the press conference should serve as a reminder that we still have
a long way to go to restore our roads and bridges. It
also reminds us that just because the state’s gaping transportation hole was —
in some part — plugged, other holes remain, not only in the roads but in local
budgets. As the Legislature rushed to pass a bill that poured more money into roads and bridges, it simultaneously restricted how much counties could levy in taxes, meaning places such as Winona County can’t fix some roads even if it wanted to.
Some may think this is some kind of tax-happy, worst-case scenario. But it’s not. Just Tuesday, the county revealed three roads that it was planning to fix and resurface would now be pushed back because of estimates that came in nearly a half-million over plan.
There’s that old saying about getting what you’ve paid for. For many rural Minnesota counties, though, we’ve gotten what we haven’t paid for.
By Darrell Ehrlick, editor, on behalf of the Winona Daily News editorial board, which also includes publisher Rusty Cunningham and online editor Jerome Christenson. To comment, call (507) 453-3507 or send e-mail to letters@winonadailynews.com.
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