By Rep. Paul Anderson
A series of meeting to draw attention to Minnesota’s transportation needs is being held around the state. One such gathering was held in Willmar last week and was attended mainly by local highway officials and contractors, along with several legislators and candidates. The district engineer for MnDOT spoke to the group about needs in the area, and other speakers discussed topics ranging from completion of the Highway 23 project to county roads and public transit.
It’s expected that increasing state funding for transportation will be a major focus of next year’s legislative session. Last raised in 2008, Minnesota’s gas tax currently stands at 28.5 cents per gallon and will be the focus of attention for raising additional revenue. Another method mentioned at the meeting was a dedicated sales tax on the price of motor fuel to be implemented at the wholesale level. For example, a 5 percent tax on the wholesale price of gasoline which was, for example $3 per gallon, would raise an additional 15 cents. That cost would eventually get passed on to consumers as retailers could not be expected to absorb an increase that large. This method of raising revenue would also make the tax subject to inflation as it would increase as the price of fuel went up.
There are many details to consider before the gas tax is raised or before any new gross receipts sales tax would be signed into law. They include how the formula would split any new revenue between the metro area and out-state, along with the split between funding for transit (which includes light rail and buses) and actual road projects.
Expect this to be one of the first major topics to be considered when the Legislature convenes again in January.
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With the beautiful fall weather experienced last week, crop maturity advanced greatly and fall harvest is underway. Chopping corn for silage was occurring in many locations as choppers made their way through fields either pulling boxes or loading semi-trucks following alongside. It’s still wet in some areas as I noticed tractors stationed in some fields ready to hook on to trucks and pull them through the low spots. Driving to Elrosa for a church dinner one evening, we noticed tractors on top of a huge silage pile, working with lights on, driving back and forth packing down the silage.
Soybean harvest is also underway as the above-normal temps last week quickly dried down the plants. Fields that only days earlier were turning color from green to light brown were now dropping leaves as a signal that they were ripe. I took out my first field over the weekend and it was about as expected. The low spots were good but the beans on the hills and clay knobs showed signs of the mid-summer dry spell and were short. I visited with one farmer near Sauk Centre who reported hail hitting his crops twice this summer. That’s never a good thing, although he thought the corn suffered less damage than his beans.
Be careful on the roads as farmers are busy gathering in the fall harvest. Equipment is large and slow-moving so give them plenty of space when either meeting or passing.
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