Dayton offers two transportation funding plans as negotiations continue

Gov. Mark Dayton on Monday pitched a pair of proposals that would raise $600 million per year for Minnesota road and bridge projects in an attempt to help end the stalemate over transportation funding and pave the way for a broader end-of-session agreement.

Both offers would rely on big increases in license tab fees and $200 million per year in General Fund dollars to boost state transportation spending; one proposal also includes a 5-cent hike in the state’s per gallon gas tax.

The plans represent Dayton’s latest attempt to jump-start negotiations on a comprehensive transportation deal that have appeared to stall as House Republican and Senate DFL plans remain far apart with under a week to go before lawmakers must adjourn the 2016 session.

“Compromise requires us to agree to things we don’t agree with,” the governor said in a statement. “That is the only way to pass a transportation funding bill this session.”

MORE View the governor’s proposals

WATCH Gov. Dayton discusses his transportation funding offers on YouTube

House Republicans have said they won’t support any transportation bill that includes a gas tax increase. The Senate’s latest offer includes a slightly scaled-back proposed increase of 12 cents phased in over three years.

House Speaker Kurt Daudt (R-Crown) sounded a positive note following a Monday morning meeting with Dayton, Senate Majority Leader Tom Bakk (DFL-Cook) and other legislative leaders, saying the governor’s offer helped move negotiations in the right direction. In particular, he praised Dayton’s proposed use of General Fund surplus dollars.

Daudt said steep tab fee increases are tough for House Republicans to swallow, though, and not what Minnesotans want to see.

“Minnesotans are going to wonder,” he said. “You have a $900 million surplus. Why aren’t you using that to fund roads and bridges?”

Surrounded by media, House Speaker Kurt Daudt, center, responds to the transportation funding plan offered by Gov. Mark Dayton May 16. Daudt said although there was no agreement yet, that they remained optimistic. Photo by Paul Battaglia

READ MORE Gas tax increase dead, House Republicans again warn governor

Daudt also criticized the governor on transit.

Dayton “didn’t move one inch” toward House Republicans on the issue, he said, calling the proposed half-cent increase in a transit-dedicated metro area sales tax and $280 million in annual transit spending included in both of Monday’s offers “staggering.”

The current Republican offer leaves out any increase in funding for Twin Cities transit projects, but leaves the door open if any increases were tied to sweeping reforms of Metropolitan Council governance.

WATCH House Republicans respond to Gov. Dayton's transportation offers on YouTube

Despite the differences, Daudt said he’s optimistic a deal can be struck this week. Dayton said anything short of passing a transportation package would be a failure.

“It’s either success or failure — there’s no in-between,” Dayton said. “I’m not up facing the voters, but I wouldn’t want to go before voters next fall and say, ‘We failed on the most important measure this session faced us.’”