News from Rep. Mark Uglem 5-13-2016

At the Capitol, there has been a lot of discussion around a transportation bill, and this session, that includes the topic of Light Rail funding. Democratic officials from across the aisle are calling for increased light rail funding to extend or build new lines, such as South West Light Rail and the Bottineau Light Rail. The Governor also wants to raise sales taxes in the Metro to fund these projects.

 

The proposal from the Senate and Governor Dayton would raise the existing ¼ cent sales tax in the Metro area to anywhere from a ½ to ¾ of a cent. They would use that revenue to finance transit in the Metropolitan area. This conduit for this funding will go to the Met Council. The Council itself is a governance structure fully comprised of unelected officials, yet they control a budget of nearly $1 billion (yes, with a “b”), and somehow that isn’t enough to fund their transit operations.

 

It is important to note, with regard to Light Rail, commuter rail, and even buses in the Metro, every tax payer in Minnesota subsidizes every ride taken. Now you, the taxpayer, are being asked to pay for more Light Rail lines that the Met Council knows full well it can’t afford to operate.

 

Light Rail ticket sales cover only about 31 cents on the dollar of operating costs. That means that tax payers shell out the other 69 cents as a subsidy. Northstar rail is even worse, with ticket sales that only pay for 15 cents per dollar. This doesn't even include the high capital costs that are paid up front to buy the trains and build the tracks.

 

Perhaps one of the most disturbing features of the Light Rail and commuter rail system, is that it operates almost completely on the honor system. The vast majority of the time tickets aren’t checked, and people take their chance to catch a free ride. It’s no surprise that fare revenue comes nowhere close to meeting operational costs. When asked to study the projected costs of installing turnstiles on Light Rail lines, the Met Council estimated that the costs of the study alone would be tens of millions of dollars. To add insult to injury, they requested that this money come from the state, instead of using funds from the Council’s own $1 billion budget.

 

The amount of state taxpayer money being requested for a single train in Minneapolis is enough to repave SIX LANES ON EVERY INTERSTATE HIGHWAY IN MINNESOTA. Not only that, but while the Met Council’s estimated cost of new Light Rail lines goes up, the distance that they cover gets scaled back, hence, they are asking for more money to cover less ground.

 

With our substantial bus system in the Metro, and our desperate need to maintain roads and bridges throughout Minnesota, it has become even more obvious than ever that light rail is a really poor investment for our community, and our state at large. The Met Council needs to reassess their spending habits, and come to the realization that tax payers can’t be hit up every time they want a shiny new train.

Sincerely,

 

Mark