OKLAHOMA CITY – The state Transportation Commission recently certified the county road mileage in all 77 counties as of Jan. 1, 2022, for tax purposes.
“These mileages constitute part of a formula used by the Oklahoma Tax Commission to distribute road user revenues among the counties,” transportation commissioners were informed.
Nine of 13 counties in southwest Oklahoma have more than 1,000 miles of county roads, and one has almost 2,000 miles of county roads, the certification showed.
Beckham Co.: 1,148 miles
Caddo Co.: 1,895 miles
Comanche Co.: 1,279 miles
Cotton Co.: 949 miles
Grady Co.: 1,482 miles
Greer Co.: 845 miles
Harmon Co.: 770 miles
Jackson Co.: 1,197 miles
Jefferson Co.: 710 miles
Kiowa Co.: 1,545 miles
Stephens Co.: 1,118 miles
Tillman Co.: 1,420 miles
Washita Co.: 1,670 miles
The three Panhandle counties have the most county roads in the state: a combined 6,106 miles. Texas County has nearly 2,500 miles of roads, Beaver County almost 2,100 miles, and Cimarron County has a little over 1,500 miles of county roads.
The largest county in Oklahoma, Osage, which encompasses almost 2,304 square miles, has 1,716 miles of county roads. In comparison, Grant County, which encompasses 1,003 square miles, has 1,774 miles of county roads, and Garfield County, which covers 1,060 square miles, has 1,862 miles of county roads.
Counties receive their road and bridge maintenance funds from gasoline excise taxes, diesel fuel taxes, a special fuel use tax, motor fuel taxes, motor vehicle collections, gross production taxes on oil, and from the alcoholic beverage tax. Those apportionments are allocated in myriad percentages in a variety of formulas.
Apportionment of the alcoholic beverage tax, for instance, is based 50/50 on a county’s square mileage and population.
Motor vehicle collections for county government are apportioned based upon the proportion that each county’s population constitutes of the entire state population.
One portion of the gasoline excise tax, diesel fuel tax and the 1-cent special fuel use tax is allocated according to one-third county road mileage, one-third on county square mileage, and one-third on population, including municipalities with fewer than 5,000 residents.
Counties also get funds from a combination of motor vehicle collections, the gasoline excise tax, the special fuel use tax, the diesel fuel tax, and the gross production tax on crude oil. Those receipts are apportioned according to county collector mileage (20%), vehicle miles of travel (20%), and a county bridge factor adjusted for type of terrain (60%).
Comanche County received almost $573,000 in tax receipts and contributions from the Comanche Nation for maintenance of county roads and bridges in Fiscal Year 2021, records provided by County Treasurer Rhonda Brantley showed.