For at least another year, people with motor vehicles registered in Pennington County will escape a wheel tax.

Pennington County commissioners tabled their discussion of a wheel tax for one year Tuesday, opting instead to put their faith in the state Legislature.

The Legislature's Transportation Committee meets Thursday in Pierre and is scheduled to hear from the South Dakota Association of County Commissioners and others about the financial plight facing local governments.

"The difficulty of maintaining roads and bridges is not just a Pennington County concern," Commissioner Nancy Trautman said in a prepared statement. Trautman read the statement on behalf of the commissioners.

Trautman said commissioners received several calls and comments from people concerning the wheel tax.

"The majority of respondents have been against the wheel tax," Trautman said.

Many of those calls came from recreational vehicle owners who are not Pennington County residents, but have their vehicles registered here, she said.

According to Trautman, commissioners plan to work with legislators and other organizations to "develop a proposal for a better way to handle the funding of roads and bridges.

"Our hope is that the 2009 Legislature will be able to act upon this proposal," she said.

While the commissioners wait for legislators to find more money for roads and bridges, it's up to County Highway Superintendent Hiene Junge's department to care for 500 miles of county roads with a dwindling budget.

A wheel tax of $2 to $4 per wheel would have meant between $1 million and $2 million in additional funding for the maintenance of county roads and bridges, according to figures Junge presented at the last commission meeting.

Junge asked the commissioners to consider the wheel tax but said ultimately the choice was theirs to make.

"I didn't know where it was going to go," Junge said. "They're the decision makers. They have to make the tough choices."

Only halfway through his budget year, Junge is facing some tough decisions.

Recent heavy rains and flooding resulted in between $150,000 and $250,000 in unanticipated expenses.

"I'll have to look and see what else I can cut to free up some funds to pay for our repair work on some of our damage from the rain," he said.

Junge also is bracing for the loss of $450,000 in federal funds the county has received in the past as compensation for the loss of revenue from timber harvested on federal lands. Congress has not authorized that funding.

"We're going to have to scramble to find $700,000 to finish this year," he said.

The commission has scheduled a special meeting next Tuesday to resume discussions on the county's 2009 budget. Commission members have said they want to increase the county's cash reserves, which would mean stripping $1 million from the proposed $67 million budget, according to auditor Julie Pearson.

Last year, commissioners stripped $500,000 from Junge's budget, a move that forced him to alter his scheduled maintenance practices.

The rotation for graveling roads was extended from every five years to every eight years.

In the past, Junge planned to apply 20 miles of new asphalt overlay annually. That's down to 9 miles this year, he said. His chip-sealing budget has been sliced from 55 miles to 30 miles.

"We're in a defensive mode," Junge said.

If new funding sources are not found within the next couple years, drivers will soon notice the difference in road conditions, he said.

"Routine maintenance is what keeps your roads in the condition they are," Junge said. "Once you start cutting that, they deteriorate."

In other action, the commission deferred two conflicting malt-beverage applications for parties associated with the Black Hills Speedway until June 24.

On a 4-1 vote with Commission Chairwoman Brenda Young voting against the action, commissioners authorized a $21,000 budget supplement for the Central States Fair for the installation of an emergency sound system at the fairgrounds.

Contact Andrea Cook at 394-8423 or andrea.cook@rapidcityjournal.com