Dayton’s supplemental transportation budget faces criticism in committee

The chair of the House Transportation Policy and Finance Committee had critical words for Gov. Mark Dayton’s supplemental transportation spending requests on Wednesday, dismissing the proposal as “not a serious plan” and expressing annoyance at its similarity to the administration’s original 2015 budget recommendations.

“There is frustration here,” said Rep. Tim Kelly (R-Red Wing), telling Deputy Transportation Commissioner Tracy Hatch that the governor’s supplemental request “was regurgitated from 15 months ago.”

“This is not a serious plan,” he said as officials from the Department of Transportation and the Metropolitan Council presented Dayton’s recommendations.

The governor is calling for additional funds in Fiscal Year 2017 for highway construction, at-grade rail crossing improvements, more state rail inspectors and improvements to the state’s aircraft registrations system to accommodate the registration of aerial drones.

His plan also includes the major pieces of his long-term transportation funding plan that differs greatly from the Republican-backed plan the House passed last year, including a proposed increase in the motor vehicle fuels tax and vehicle registration fee to fund road and bridge projects, and an expanded metro area transit-dedicated sales tax to accelerate Twin Cities transitway expansion.

The change items among Dayton’s 2017 supplemental transportation budget recommendations include:

• an increased appropriation of $90 million in federal road construction funds;
• establishment of a snow and ice management contingency appropriation of $65 million;
• $32.5 million for at-grade rail crossing improvements on busy oil transport corridors;
• a $1.5 million increase to the grade crossing safety account to help fund additional grade crossing improvements on the trunk highway system or local road system;
• a $1.3 million appropriation from the General Fund to fund an interagency rail director and activities by the new Interagency Rail Working Group of state agencies;
• $446,000 for up to four additional state rail safety inspectors, plus a program manager to oversee more comprehensive inspection activities; and
• $313,000 in a one-time appropriation from the state’s airports fund to provide system updates to accommodate aircraft registration and commercial operator licensing of unmanned aerial drones.

Still miles apart?

Legislative leaders on both sides of the aisle say striking a transportation funding deal remains a high priority this session, but little apparent progress has been made in bridging the differences between the House and Senate plans.

The Republican-backed House plan passed last year would raise an additional $7 billion for roads and bridges over the next decade, in part by redirecting motor vehicle-related tax revenue away from the state’s General Fund, identifying efficiencies in the MnDOT budget, and utilizing some of the state’s projected $900 million budget surplus.

Meanwhile, the DFL-backed package the Senate passed proposes to raise roughly $11 billion for roads, bridges and transit by instituting a new gas tax and expanding a metro area transit-dedicated sales tax from one-quarter to three-quarters of a cent.

The House and Senate conference committee on HF4, the omnibus transportation funding bill, last met March 16. Kelly and Rep. Frank Hornstein (DFL-Mpls) both expressed optimism, however, that an agreement can be reached.

“We have to understand we’re not going to get everything we want on either side,” Hornstein said.