COVID-19 relief funds to help cities and counties with transportation needs

The Metropolitan Council is acting on advice from local government officials to distribute $20 million in COVID-19 relief funds directly to cities and counties in the seven-county metro area. The federal Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act allocated the funding to the Met Council to address transportation problems caused by the pandemic.

The Met Council relies on the perspective of its Transportation Advisory Board (TAB), which recommends how federal transportation funding should be allocated. In this instance, the TAB found that the COVID relief funding could help fill a funding hole that was created when gas tax revenues dropped off along with driving during the pandemic.

In the seven-county metro area the reduction in driving in 2021 due to the pandemic resulted in a loss of $20.9 million in funding for county state aid highways, and another $11.6 million in funding for municipal roadwork.

“The COVID funding is just one of several federal funding programs the Met Council is responsible for using to improve transportation in the metro area,” said Met Council Chair Charlie Zelle. “We rely on the advice of the local leaders who serve on the TAB to help us make thoughtful, efficient use of federal funding so it benefits people where they live.”

In December, the Met Council voted to distribute the $20 million in funding to all seven metro counties and 81 cities with populations of more than 5,000 people. The funding will be distributed with the state-aid formula that is used to divide up gas tax revenues. The cities and counties have no shortage of projects to use this funding on. These include road safety, street repairs, work on trails, and other key projects that would have been delayed because of the drop in state-aid funds.

Counties

Cities