PIERRE, SD – More of the economic impacts of the coronavirus pandemic are becoming clear.
South Dakota Transportation Department Secretary Darin Bergquist says miles driven in the state have fallen sharply in the past six weeks.
“We really started to see a fall off of traffic on state highways in South Dakota in mid-March. Comparing the first three weeks of April year to year, we are seeing a 40 percent decline in the number of vehicle miles traveled.”
Bergquist says they expect to see a sharp drop in the gas taxes they collect. “We collect about $15 million per month in gas tax revenues. To correlate that with the decline in miles driven, we are going to lose $6 million a month – each month that this continues, just in the gas tax.”
He believes a drop in car sales will also be felt. “A big source of revenue is the motor vehicle excise tax which is about $10 million a month. Certainly this is going to be impacted because people aren’t buying cars at the rate they were prior to COVID-19. We don’t have a projection yet as to the amount of lost revenue there will be but we expect it to be significant.”
He updated the state Transportation Commission at their monthly meeting.
