Following a one day special session, the 2015 legislative session has finally come to a close. While a number of good provisions for Greater Minnesota have been signed into law, I remain extremely disappointed in a lost opportunity to improve the way we fund our road and bridge needs in this state.
The final bipartisan compromise included $138 million for our nursing homes to implement a statewide rate of reimbursement – which will strongly assist facilities in Greater Minnesota, improve the wages of care providers and provide a permanent solution to statewide nursing home needs.
In our special session, we also approved a K-12 Education funding bill that will spend $1.4 billion more in our schools over the next biennium than we did in our previous budget cycle. Greater Minnesota schools can expect an average increase of $396 per pupil.
We also fulfilled our budgetary obligations by funding statewide transportation needs over the next two years. This includes $12.5 million in new revenue to assist towns with populations under 5,000 residents with street repair projects; $5 million for Greater Minnesota transit; $5 million for the Rail Grade Safety Account, nearly $1 million to fund two new emergency response teams; and $3 million to the Port Development Assistance Program.
But a comprehensive long-term funding proposal for our road and bridge needs was lost over a tax increase.
You'll recall Governor Dayton and Senate Democrats wanted to raise taxes and fees by more than $9 billion for transportation projects. This included a tax increase that ultimately would have cost you a minimum of 16-cents more per gallon for gasoline. Having negotiated with these groups for several weeks, I can tell you with confidence that they never budged from this stance.
The House gave them an option that, according to polls, a majority of Minnesotans support. Our proposal would have invested $7 billion over the next decade without raising taxes, and prioritized road and bridge infrastructure through immediate repair of roads in Minnesota communities, highway improvements for commuters and commerce, and reliable, long-term funding without raising taxes.
By reallocating a number of currently collected transportation-related funds, such as the existing sales tax on auto parts and rental vehicles, we could have provided nearly $3 billion for programs such as state road and bridge funding, small city transportation projects, and Greater Minnesota bus services. We also would have utilized trunk highway and general obligation bonds, general funds, and realigned Minnesota Department of Transportation resources.
In all, we would have repaired or replaced 15,500 lane miles for all roads and 330 bridges statewide.
The good news is the debate is not over. We are able to resume discussions on our long term road and bridge funding needs during the 2016 session. I believe that most parties now understand that we do not need another tax to accomplish our goals. I look forward to putting the final touches on a long term funding plan that prioritizes transportation within our existing budget.