(Radio Iowa) – There will be a change in the way road use tax funds are distributed to counties after the governor signed a bill into law cutting the number of state boards and commissions. The D-O-T’s Stuart Anderson says the funding for counties had been determined by the Secondary Road Fund Distribution Committee.

“It had supervisor members and county engineer members, and they were tasked with a very detailed rule-making process the authority for determining how secondary road fund and farm to market road funds are distributed amongst the 99 counties,” he says. Anderson said during the Transportation Commission’s recent meeting that the committee helped deal with annual fluctuations in county road funding. He says the new law cut that committee and shifted the responsibility.

“Transferred that authority to determine how secondary road fund and Farm to Market Road funds are distributed to you the commission and you are required to define that process through rule-making,” he says. Anderson says the Transportation Commission can still seek input from the supervisor and county engineers.

“Although that committee formally does not exist anymore in Iowa code it’s likely something I think we as department staff would recommend to the commission you continue to utilize as as an ad-hoc group,” he says. Anderson says the Transportation Commission will be working on the rule-making process for distributing the county funds in the next couple of months.