Accessibility menu
State Representative John Benson
100 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
651-296-9934
For more information contact: Charlene Briner 651-296-5809
NEWS COLUMN
COMPREHENSIVE TRANSPORTATION PLAN IS LONG OVERDUE
Saturday, March 24th, a Town Hall Meeting I had scheduled at Plymouth Library was canceled because of a rare Saturday session of the Minnesota House. During that session in a show of bipartisan support between Democrats and Republicans the House passed a bill to give $4.3 billion boost to Minnesota's statewide transportation system.
The bill uses a variety of funding strategies. First it eliminates caps on the motor vehicle registration tax on new cars, and splits that revenue to direct 60% to highways and 40% to transit. It also raises the gas tax by five cents per gallon this year and five cents per gallon next year, the first increase since 1988.
The gas tax is probably the most divisive element of the bill, but consider this; out of the 50 states, Minnesota ranks 40th with regard to the size of its gas tax. Wisconsin's gas tax is 51.3 cents, South Dakota and North Dakota have respective taxes of 42.2 cents and 41.4 cents, and Iowans pay 40.4 cents per gallon. Assuming the average driver travels 11,000 miles a year in an average vehicle, and that average vehicle gets 20 miles per gallon, the ten cent gas tax increase will only cost this typical driver an additional five dollars per month.
The Minnesota Department of Transportation estimates that it will take $1.8 billion a year just to address the numerous un-met construction and maintenance goals for state highways, roads and transit networks. Minnesota's increasingly congested and dilapidated roadways are creating barriers to quality time with our families and hampering business's ability to move people and goods to market safely and efficiently. It's estimated that increasing metro traffic congestion is costing each commuter up to $700 per year in lost time and gas. $5 per year is a pretty small price to pay to fix out crumbling transportation infrastructure and relieve congestion.
For me the most controversial part of the transportation bill concerns allowing county governments in the metro area to add a ½ percent increase onto the sales tax fund metro transit projects. I supported a failed amendment to put this proposed tax increase on the ballot, similar to provisions for all of the rural counties. After what happened with the stadium sales tax increase, I just feel that metro voters ought to have the same voice as every outstate voter.
While our state government sat on its hands for more than twenty years and failed to address our growing transportation crisis, Minnesota fell far behind much of the rest of the country. It's too simple to only call this a transportation bill – it's so much more. It's an economic development bill, a public safety bill and a property tax relief bill that will make our roads safer, move people and goods more efficiently, and turn back the trend of asking property owners to pay for unfunded transportation projects. It's about time.
-30-
News Items
- Rep. John Benson: Southwest Light Rail Transit Good For Businesses, Communities, and Our Future - (Posted: 2012-09-13 00:00:00)
- Legislature Passes Bonding & Vikings Bills, Neglects Skyrocketing Property Taxes - (Posted: 2012-05-10 00:00:00)
- Legislative Update - May 8, 2012 - (Posted: 2012-05-08 00:00:00)
- Archived News Items
- Subscribe to RSS News Feeds
- Read more about RSS.