‘Lights-on’ package approved
The nearly $3.8 billion status quo transportation package, sponsored by Rep. Bernie Lieder (DFL-Crookston) and Sen. Steve Murphy (DFL-Red Wing), is about $380 million less than the vetoed proposal that contained a 7.5-cent gas tax increase, $1.5 billion in bonding over the next decade, an increase in license tab fees, and a possible metropolitan area tax increase for transportation needs.
“Much more needs to be done, but the advocates overreached,” Gov. Tim Pawlenty said the day after session ended. He suggested supporters shouldn’t have gone “for the whole enchilada and get nothing. … I told leaders that if they came in with a more reasonable plan, maybe the results would have been different.”
HF562*/SF360/CH143
Passage problems
An initial bill (HF946) that supporters said would have put more than $8 billion into highways, city and county roads and transit over the next decade was vetoed by Pawlenty, in part, because it included a number of tax increases. “The entire array of tax increases in this bill would cost an average family in Minnesota up to $500 per year,” Pawlenty wrote in his veto message.
An attempt to override the veto could garner just 83 of the 90 needed House votes.
End product
The law appropriates $1.1 billion for state road construction; $869.88 million for the county-state aid highway system; $423.26 million for infrastructure operations and maintenance; $347.8 million for infrastructure investment support, including $5 million for a pilot project “to demonstrate technologies that will allow for the future replacement of the gas tax with a fuel-neutral mileage charge”; and $234.87 million for the municipal state-aid street system. All funds, unless noted, have zero increase or a slight bump for compensation increases. Any unused money appropriated for road construction before fiscal year 2008 is available in the biennium provided it is spent on the construction project for which it was directed.
Further, the law allocates $40.6 million for airport development and assistance.
“This is going to help us once and for all figure out what the funding levels should be for our airports,” Murphy said.
Also included is $2.5 million in fiscal year 2008 to implement the town sign replacement program. The appropriation is to satisfy any matching requirement necessary to receive federal funds. (Art. 1, Sec. 3)
The Metropolitan Council is to receive $73.45 million each year for bus system operations. To keep the Metro Transit system from reducing service, the law provides $20 million in one-time money in fiscal year 2008. Further, the law provides $5.3 million each year to fund half the operating costs of the Hiawatha Light Rail Transit line, after operating revenue and federal funds are spent. Remaining costs, up to $5.3 million per year, are to be paid by Hennepin County. (Art. 1, Sec. 4)
Language is also included in the law to ensure that state funds are available so the Northstar Commuter Rail project continues without delay. (Art. 1, Sec. 10)
The Department of Public Safety is to receive $291.35 million in the biennium.
In November 2006, Minnesota voters approved a constitutional amendment to dedicate all funds from the state motor vehicle sales tax to transportation purposes. The law sets forth a gradual percentage change so that beginning July 1, 2011, 60 percent of the revenue will go towards highways, 36 percent for metropolitan area transit and 4 percent for Greater Minnesota transit. (Art. 2, Sec. 5)
Driver and vehicle services fees are raised in the law, primarily a 75-cent increase in a driver’s license, instruction permit and state identification card. The goal is to make the Driver and Vehicle Services Division of the Department of Public Safety a fee-based service. (Art. 3, Secs. 1-4, 6)
Fees for a state patrol escort are also going up in fiscal years 2008-09. The hourly fee charged for services with a vehicle will be $73.60 and $75.76; services without a vehicle will be $54 and $56.16; flight services with a fixed wing aircraft will be $140; $490 for a helicopter; and $600 for the Queen Air. (Art. 3, Sec. 8)
Under the law, the finance commissioner shall discuss budget forecast information, including changes from previous forecasts, with the chairs of House and Senate committees with jurisdiction over finance, ways and means and transportation finance, and fiscal staff no later than one week after the forecast release. Previously, the deadline was two weeks before the release. (Art. 4, Sec. 2)
The lone line-item veto by Pawlenty was $200,000 to the Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs for participation in the Urban Partnership Agreement Congestion program. In his veto message, the governor said the law allocates up to $1 million to fund state activities in support of a federal program. “If the state is to fund their activities with Trunk Highway funds, those activities must be managed by the Minnesota Department of Transportation under appropriate consulting and/or technical service contractual agreements.”
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