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State Representative Jim Davnie
100 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
651-296-0173
For more information contact: Melissa Parker 651-296-8873
COMMUNITY NOTICE
Transit letter
Dear Friend:
Thank you for contacting me to express your concerns over the strength of our transit system and the proposed cuts in Metro Transit service. I can certainly understand your concerns over this grim possibility. I want to update you on the status of this issue by sharing some good news.
As you know, Metro Transit faced a $60 million budget shortfall this year that led to the Metropolitan Council’s proposal to drastically cut back on routes and increase fares by 25 cents. You will be pleased to know that during the special session the Legislature passed with my support, and the Governor signed into law, a transportation bill that provides an additional $40 million in Metro Transit funds over the next two years to plug two-thirds of this gap. Unfortunately, the fare increase and limited transit service cuts proposed in June will stay in place.
It is disappointing that this all could have been avoided had Governor Pawlenty not vetoed the Omnibus Transportation Finance Bill passed on a bi-partisan basis by the Legislature in May. This $7.7 billion transportation package, which I strongly supported, would have funded transit needs, roads, and highways in the Twin Cities and Greater Minnesota for the next ten years, pumping $5.9 billion into roads and $1.8 billion into transit. The legislation funded Metro Transit so the proposed bus route cutbacks and fare increases would have been completely averted, and the system might even have seen service upgrades.
For a third time Minneapolis was able to fight the creation of a special taxing district along the Hiawatha LRT line that would have taken property taxes there away from the city to fund the line. It is unfair and short sighted to make one area responsible for the funding of a regional amenity, and I am glad that we were able to get that provision removed from the House transportation bill before it passed.
Although this year’s additional legislative funding is welcome and badly needed, it is still just a short-term fix to a long-term problem. Minnesota needs a dedicated, stable source of transit funding to advance a quality mass transit system and reduce our dependence on automobiles. The vetoed transportation bill did include a constitutional amendment that will appear on the ballot in November of 06 that would dedicate a minimum of 40% of the revenue generated by sales taxes on automobile purchases to transit funding. That would be an important step to building the long-range regional plan of a multi-modal system that encompasses commuter rail, light rail, and bus lines. I am committed to seeking ways to achieve this goal.
Thank you again for sharing your concerns. Please always feel free to contact me whenever I can be of assistance.
Sincerely,
Jim Davnie
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