FOLEY -- Benton County residents will be paying a $20 fee when they renew their license tabs this year. That's a $10 increase from previous years.

Benton County commissioners approved collecting the additional $10 on the Wheelage Tax beginning January 1, 2018.  County Engineer Chris Byrd says the money goes to county road construction projects that aren't eligible for state aid or federal funding.

Byrd says the Wheelage Tax has raised an average of $377,000 per year since the county began collecting it in 2014.  With the increase, Byrd says the county will have just over $600,000 in Wheelage Tax money for road construction projects annually.  When added to the annual $470,000 already budgeted for county road projects, the total dollars strictly for county roads climbs to $1,073,200 per year.

With the new $20 Wheelage tax, $4 of every license tab renewal will go to help maintain or repair county ditches. The increase is expected to raise $130,000 per year for ditches.

A project to rebuild County Road 58 east of Sauk Rapids will be completed this summer and will be paid for with Wheelage Tax dollars.

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